The International Forum for Young Composers was conceived and established by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. A biennial event, Forum was launched in 1991, organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal as well as the Société Radio-Canada, and sponsored by the International Music Council (UNESCO). Forum’s Montreal roots notwithstanding, we responded enthusiastically to the kind invitation from the Telstra Adelaide Festival to ‘relocate’ the 2000 event to Australia. In 2002, Forum returned to the University of Montreal for its sixth edition.
The cantate francaise flourished during the first half of the eighteenth century. Morin and Bernier were among the most interesting early exponents of it, Campra, Monteclair, Clerambault and Rameau among the most impressive. Indeed, it is generally recognized that the cantate francaise reached its zenith in the hands of Clerambault. He is represented on this new disc by Le Soleil, vainqueur des nuages. It appeared in none of the composer’s five published collections of chamber cantatas but was issued separately in 1721