Caplet: Le Miroir de Jésus

[Master Jacques]

Delighted to hear John Rutter promoting this extraordinarily beautiful work on this morning's programme. There is nothing quite like it, for sure.

I found the new German recording more robust and forthright than my own particular favourites (it's a work I don't seem to be able to stop collecting!) but it is good to have a view of Le Miroir de Jésus which differs from the ethereal, French norm. Of the alternatives, the Naxos recording - ex Marco Polo - is very attractive, clean and clear; but my own personal favourite (by a short head over a beautiful, icing sugar-spun Lyon account on Accord) is this Lausanne Recording:

Marie-Claude Chappuis (mezzo), Anne Bassand (harp),
Marc-Antoine Bonanomi (double bass)
Ensemble Vocal Lausanne, Quatuor Sine Nomine, Jean-Claude Fasel
Mirare: MIR160

The sound quality here is ultra-refined, the instrumental playing precise, and the singing utterly angelic. Warmly recommended, whether or not you know the work from another recording.

[Bella Kemp]

It is most moving. I seem to hear faint echoes of it in some of the choral work of James Macmillan.

[Serial_Apologist]

It is most moving. I seem to hear faint echoes of it in some of the choral work of James Macmillan.

That would be no recommendation for me, to be honest, though I have loved what music by Caplet I've listened to, so must hear this work sometime - he was the closest in spirit and execution of all the successors coming in the wake of his close friend Debussy.

[Master Jacques]

It is most moving. I seem to hear faint echoes of it in some of the choral work of James Macmillan.

I had not connected them before, and you are quite right. There is something about the absolute certitude of faith (and unadorned beauty) in the choral works of Caplet, which I also hear in Macmillan's. Their music can be profoundly reassuring, even if we don't share that faith.

[RichardB]

That would be no recommendation for me, to be honest, though I have loved what music by Caplet I've listened to, so must hear this work sometime - he was the closest in spirit and execution of all the successors coming in the wake of his close friend Debussy.

My favourite work of his is Conte fantastique for harp and string quartet, based on Poe's Masque of the Red Death, to which I was introduced by my OH who has played it a few times. I agree with Master Jacques about the Lausanne recording of Miroir de Jésus, though I haven't listened to it for a while. I can't say it's ever reminded me of J McM and I very much hope it doesn't the next time I hear it!

[Master Jacques]

My favourite work of his is Conte fantastique for harp and string quartet, based on Poe's Masque of the Red Death, to which I was introduced by my OH who has played it a few times. I agree with Master Jacques about the Lausanne recording of Miroir de Jésus, though I haven't listened to it for a while. [...]

Yes, indeed! Conte fantastique is a deeply haunting piece, with greater impact than its modest length and scoring might suggest. That knocking on the wooden frame of the harp when the Red Death comes to call ... once again, the piece is not quite like anything else.

Another good Caplet piece almost at the level of these two, is the unaccompanied Messe a trois voix, which has something of the rapt quality of Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor, but inhabits its own, ethereal world.