Ma Mere l’Oye, Cinq pieces enfantines - Mother Goose, Five children’s pieces
1. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty)
2. Petit Poucet: Très modéré (Little Tom Thumb / Hop-o'-My-Thumb)
3. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes (Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas)
4. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête (Conversation of Beauty and the Beast)
5. Le jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden)
French composer Maurice Ravel was often regarded during his lifetime as France’s greatest living composer, and the sheer quality of his music has ensured his lasting popularity.
A student of Fauré, and a member of Les Apaches; a collective of innovative young artists, poets, critics and musicians who met regularly, until the outbreak of the First World War, to challenge each other with intellectual debate and performances of their new works, Ravel was a highly gifted orchestrator, breathing life, colour and texture into his music, and reinventing some of his most popular piano works. One such piece being Ma Mere l’Oye, Cinq pieces enfantines (Mother Goose, Five children’s pieces) – Originally written in 1910 for two pianos, the suite was orchestrated by the composer himself, at the behest of his publisher, only one year later.
Evoking memories of childhood poetry, each of the five movements in this utterly charming work is based on a fairy tale. Full of playfulness, excitement and character, Ravel’s orchestration glimmers with a childlike innocence and purity even more poignant than in its original form.
In 1912 the suite underwent a second transformation… this time as a continuous 30 minute ballet score encapsulating the original five movements alongside some additional music to capture Ravel’s narrative. Totally in keeping with his original vision for the piece, Ravel insisted on writing this narrative himself, and the result? Well, a fairy tale of course! Imagine Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger on the spinning wheel, falling asleep and dreaming of Little Tom Thumb, Little Ugly and Beauty in the Beast before being kissed by her handsome prince and waking up in a Fairy Garden, and you’re perfectly poised to lose yourself in the story.
The version performed here by Â鶹ԼÅÄ NOW, under conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, is the orchestrated suite from 1911, but as you listen make sure you keep Ravel’s overarching ballet narrative in mind for a truly submersive experience.
Programme Note © Amy Campbell