Gounod’s Ave Maria is, after Schubert’s, the second most famous one, and it has appeared in countless arrangements, many by Gounod himself. It started not as an Ave Maria but as an instrumental chamber work called Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de piano de S. Bach. Gounod has taken Bach’s “Prelude No. 1” from The Well-Tempered Clavier and made it the piano part for his new Méditation. Above Bach’s running sixteenth notes he set a newly composed melody. Apparently Gounod had a hit on his hands, for he made many arrangements of his Méditation over the years. Today we feature the great tenor Vinson Cole who sings it as beautifully as anyone I have ever heard.

– Dennis Keene

CHARLES GOUNOD Ave Maria

Vinson Cole, Tenor
Patrick Stephens, Piano

from the Delos recording Mysteries Beyond ℗ 1994 Delos