This is an appealing concert that cleverly mixes the familiar with the unfamiliar and includes a well-known piece in an unfamiliar guise. The Pavane was composed in 1886 and dedicated to the Vicomtesse Greffulhe. After its premiere the vicomtesse suggested that voices should be added: Fauré duly added a four-part chorus to pastoral verses by Comte Robert de Montesquiou. Beating two-in-a-bar, Paavo Järvi keeps the music flowing along nicely.

The choral arrangement of the Pavane was performed at the Société Nationale in Paris, which had seen the premiere of the Elégie in December 1883. This was in its original version for cello and piano, possibly intended as the slow movement of a sonata. Fauré’s orchestration was performed in 1902. A long, legato melody for the soloist is contrasted with a livelier, syncopated tune introduced by the clarinet. Eric Picard plays with fervour but the camera does him no favours by focusing on his anguished facial expressions.

Next comes the rarity. Fauré composed Super flumina Babylonis at the age of 18 when he was studying with Saint-Saëns. The semiquaver phrase on the strings that pervades the opening is perhaps derived from the chorus of Egyptians in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon: ironic, if so, as here it’s the Israelites who are lamenting. Solos for soprano, alto and tenor are followed by an animated quartet at ‘Si non proposuero Jerusalem’, punctuated by horn calls. The chorus re-enters strongly at ‘Memor esto, Domine’, after which a unison passage leads to a dying-away for the orchestra. A fine piece, stirringly performed. The Cantique de Jean Racine is too much like an anticipation of Franck’s sentimental ‘Panis angelicus’ for my taste but Järvi doesn’t let his forces overdose on the sugar.

Järvi brings a similar no-nonsense approach to the full-orchestral version of the Requiem, so the string tune in the ‘Agnus Dei’ doesn’t sound like proto-Elgar. The violas and cellos are wonderfully expressive throughout: just listen to the hairpin dynamics, intensified when the phrase is repeated, as they accompany Matthias Goerne’s noble baritone at ‘Quam olim Abrahae’. There are some intonation problems in the ‘Agnus’ and ‘In paradisum’ but otherwise the 90-strong choir sings well. Isabelle Soulard’s video direction is pleasingly unobtrusive.