The child and the spirits
Mother Goose

Stéphane Deneve has produced many outstanding CDs with his Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, among them Poulenc's complete score for Les biches, and orchestral works by Ravel, including L'heure espagnol. He now presents the final installment of the five-part Ravel cycle which includes Ravel’s second opera L'enfant et les sortileges. Deneve selected a first-class cast of young singers, who give a highly enjoyable performance of this lyrical fantasy. In response to the libretto by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, L'enfant et les sortiléges teems with imagination, as with so many of Ravel's orchestral works, including his first opera. Ravel creates magical soundscapes, responding to the libretto's surreal subject matter in a highly original manner and with great stylistic freedom. A big inspiration for him was American operetta, an early form of the musical, which was slowly finding its way to Europe at that time. Ravel got to know this style in the musical revues of the Parisian music halls and vaudevilles. He was fascinated both by the “concert salades” of the pianist Jean Wiener, with their colourful mixture of classical and modern music, and by the first jazz bands who appeared in Paris pre-1914 and were enthusiastically received by the French arts scene. The programme is completed by Ma mere l'oye, 5 pieces enfantines, originally a work for piano four-hands which Ravel orchestrated in 1911 before developing it one year later into a ballet.

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Recording: 14.–15.12.2015 Stadthalle Sindelfingen, Konzert vom 19. und 20.09.2013, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Beethovensaal. Final volume of the series.