In this afternoon’s live Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3 broadcast, we hear twice from Ravel with a song cycle from Vaughan Williams nestled in between.
Ravel’s wartime suite, Le tombeau de Couperin, finds light in darkness and remembers friends killed in the First World War. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers).
Our second Ravel piece this afternoon is the beguiling ballet suite Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) - a charming and delicate suite of fairytale pieces. Inspired by the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Ravel’s piece began life as a piano duet before developing into an orchestral ballet score. Luxurious in sound and elegance, it’s full of the warmth of childhood fantasies.
British tenor Alessandro Fisher joins the orchestra for Vaughan Williams’s quintessentially English On Wenlock Edge - music of shimmering colour comprising six short studies from Housman's 1896 collection, A Shropshire Lad.