“A genre of high fantasy, complete with its host of ghosts, demons, spirits and witches, usurped the place of the magical elements of Baroque opera in France during the 19th century,” writes Alexandre Dratwicki in the introduction to this programme, conceived by the Palazzetto Bru Zane and dedicated to “le fantastique” in French symphonic music between 1850 and 1914. Gounod’s La Nonne sanglante, Guiraud’s La Chasse fantastique, Carraud’s La Chevauchée de la chimère, and Schmitt’s Le Palais hanté—all these highly evocative titles set the tone, with the mysterious and strange atmosphere reinforced by the instrumentation and orchestration chosen by the composers for these overtures, ballets, or descriptive preludes, as in Héro et Léandre by Augusta Holmès and Ossiane by Marie Jaëll—two unjustly forgotten composers whom the Palazzetto Bru Zane is working to bring to the public’s attention. Their pieces are recorded here for the first time anywhere in the world. This repertoire is magnificently performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud, now music director of the Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen.