Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra/Hervé Niquet

Saint-Saëns: Music for the Prix de RomeGlossa GCD 922210 ***

It was Berlioz who said of Saint-Saëns, in the context of a symphony from the teenage prodigy, that "he knows everything, but lacks inexperience". Saint-Saëns saw things differently. He recalled that in writing Le Retour de Virginiefor the Prix de Rome, aged 16 in 1852, he had to set text about the sea, which he had never even seen. His second Prix de Rome entry, Ivanhoé, in 1864, is a different kettle of fish, a confident, accomplished creation with up-to-the-minute Italian influences, a flavour that probably didn't go down well in the competition, which, for the second time, he failed to win. Hervé Niquet usefully fills out the picture of the young Saint-Saëns's output with an 1852 Choeur de Sylphes, an 1864 Ode, as well as motets and excerpts of a Mass from 1857. See url.ie/5afh