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Ravel - L’Enfant et les Sortileges, Mother Goose Suite

Label: Warner

Cat No: 2641972

Barcode: 5099926419725

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 2nd March 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Works

Ravel, Maurice

L'Enfant et les sortileges
Ma Mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)

Artists

Magdalena Kozena
Annick Massis
Nathalie Stutzmann
Sophie Koch
Jose Van Dam
Francois Le Roux
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt
Mojca Erdmann
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor

Simon Rattle

Works

Ravel, Maurice

L'Enfant et les sortileges
Ma Mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)

Artists

Magdalena Kozena
Annick Massis
Nathalie Stutzmann
Sophie Koch
Jose Van Dam
Francois Le Roux
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt
Mojca Erdmann
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor

Simon Rattle

About

In the first fruit of the renewed exclusive recording contract with the Berliner Philharmoniker and EMI Classics, Simon Rattle and the orchestra perform a programme of Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges and Ma mère l’oye.

Recorded in concert at Berlin’s Philharmonie in September 2008, the disc follows on the heels of their critically-acclaimed release of another classic of the French orchestral repertoire, Berlioz’s 'Symphonie fantastique'.

Joining the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Rundfunkchor Berlin in the one-act opera L'enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells) is a stellar cast, including José van Dam who makes cameo appearances as La fauteuille and un arbre.

L'enfant et les sortilèges has strong associations for Sir Simon. Shortly after winning the John Player International Conducting Competition in May 1974, Rattle, then aged 19, conducted the work in concert in Liverpool, receiving the first of many critical successes in his career. A Glyndebourne performance in 1987 sealed his reputation for the work, and this recording encapsulates his love and experience for the charmed sound-world of the Child's house and garden in Ravel's setting.

Maurice Ravel composed L'enfant et les sortilèges between 1917 and 1925 to a libretto by the French novelist Colette, who had selected him from several potential candidates. The opera, which followed his earlier work in the genre, L’heure espagnole, was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1925 with Victor de Sabata conducting and ballet sequences choreographed by George Balanchine. The story unfolds in an old-fashioned French country house. A child, scolded by his mother, goes to his room and throws a tantrum during which he destroys many of his toys and other objects, which then come to life and challenge him. Later, the boy tries to befriend animals and plants from his garden, which reject him because he had previously tortured or destroyed them. When a squirrel is hurt, the boy puts a bandage on him and the other animals relent. At the end of the opera, the boy, duly chastened, greets his approaching mother with the sole word “Maman!”

Ravel composed Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite) as a set of five piano duets for the talented children of his friends Ida and Cyprien Godebski, taking his inspiration from age-old fairy tales such as The Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Little Girl and Hop-o My Thumb. It was in this version that they were premiered at the Salle Gaveau in 1910. The following year, Ravel orchestrated them, turning them into a ballet and adding a prelude, a new opening and interludes connecting the various numbers. The work was premiered in this form in Paris in 1912.

Cast:
- Magdalena Kozena: L’enfant
- Annick Massis: Le Feu, La Princess, La Rossignol
- Nathalie Stutzmann: Maman, La tasse chinoise, La Libellule
- Sophie Koch: La Bergère, La Chatte, L’Ecurieul, Un Patre
- José van Dam: La Fauteuil, Un Arbre
- Francois Le Roux: L’Horloge Comtoise, Le Chat
- Jean-Paul Fouchecourt: La Théière, Le Petit Viellard, La Rainette
- Mojca Erdmann: Une Pastorelle, La Chauvre-souris, La Chouette