By spreading a five-day festival dedicated to the music of Maurice Ravel across the French capital in March 2025, the Orchestre National de France was celebrating both the 150th anniversary of French composer’s birth and its own captivating history.

Whoever the orchestra’s Director might be, whatever changes and evolutions have taken place involving musicians, instruments, or anything else, Ravel’s music remains, like Debussy’s, absolutely central to its repertoire, and has been ever since its founding, in January 1934, by Jean Mistler, the then Minister of Post, Telegraphs and Telephones, and Desire-emile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), the renowned composer and conductor.

The nearly three hours of music in this lovingly illustrated naïve boxed set offer a vast compendium of the French composer’s orchestral works, missing only the Menuet antique, the Valses nobles et sentimentales and the Sheherazade overture.

Le Tombeau de Couperin, given here in a version that respects the order of the original piano suite and also supplemented by David Molard Soriano’s two unpublished, arresting orchestrations, and the complete ballet score of Daphnis et Chloe, both work all their subtle yet utterly intoxicating magic.

Surely it is impossible not to marvel at this vividly told account of Daphnis et Chloe, at the natural, filigree balance of the ensemble in, for instance, the Introduction et Danse religieuse and the introduction to Pantomime, at those curvaceous phrases in Danse lente et mysterieuse des Nymphes and Lever du jour, or at the rhythm, rigidly maintained without the least hint of aggression in an unforgettable Danse suppliante de Chloe and the final Bacchanale.

The Orchestre National and its former Directors Inghelbrecht, Desormière, up until Martinon at the beginning of the 1970s, created a particular style for Ravel, ethereal, elastic, intelligently balanced, the harmonies always radiant. From the very first concert of this new Ravelian spring, which took place on February 28th, 2025 in Paris’s Philharmonie; the current Director of the orchestra, the Romanian Cristian Macelaru, resurrected this spirit and sustained it until the sublime apotheosis of Ma Mère l’Oye, the final piece of the final concert, on March 13th, 2025.

From Jardin feerique thus emerged subtle yet raw, honest emotions, the very essence of the magic that is Ravel.

CD 1:
Le Tombeau de Couperin, M. 68
I. Prélude - II. Fugue - III. Forlane - IV. Rigaudon - V. Menuet - VI. Toccata
Ma mère l’Oye, M. 62 (Ballet)
Prélude - Danse du rouet et Scène - Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant - Interlude - Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête - Interlude - Petit Poucet – Interlude - Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes - Interlude - Apothéose. Le jardin féerique
La Valse, M. 72 (Poème chorégraphique)

The first CD opens on Le Tombeau de Couperin, M. 68; and the flourishing Prélude, the considerate Fugue, the resplendent Forlane, and both the resounding Rigaudon and both the diminutive Menuet and the skittish Toccata.

Along next is Ma mère l’Oye, M. 62; of which this ballet opens on the stealthy Prélude and the scurrying Danse du rouet et Scène and then we get the serene Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant, an Interlude, the emotive Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête, an Interlude, a quite stirring Petit Poucet, an Interlude, the captivating Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes, another Interlude, before the work culminates on the dutifully subtle nuances within Apothéose. Le jardin féerique.

With the affectional La Valse, M. 72 (Poème chorégraphique) rounding the first disc out, it brings with it a rather lovely end to the musical proceedings.

CD 2:
Une barque sur l’océan, M. 43A
Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19A
Alborada del gracioso, M. 43B
Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54
I. Prélude à la nuit - II. Malagueña - III. Habanera - IV. Feria
Boléro, M. 81

The second CD opens on Une barque sur l’océan, M. 43A, a grippingly motivated piece, and then comes the sophisticated Pavane pour une infante défunte, the rather prepensely enrapturing M. 19A Alborada del gracioso, M. 43B, and then comes the work Rapsodie espagnole, M. 54; which opens on the decadent swirls and twirls of Prélude à la nuit, the playful, flirtatious even at times, yet delicate one minute, sternly strident at others Malagueña, the exquisite Habanera, the forthright Feria, closing on the well known standalone work, the always-charming to hear Boléro, M. 81.

CD 3:
Daphnis et Chloé, M. 57 (Complete Ballet score)

I. Introduction et Danse religieuse
II. Les jeunes filles attirent Daphnis – Danse Générale
III. Chloe est entrainée dans la danse des jeunes gens
IV. Mais dans un geste brusque Daphnis écarte le bouvier et s’approche
V. Danse grotesque de Dorcon
VI. Danse légère et gracieuse de Daphnis
VII. Daphnis et Chloè enlacès
VIII. Lycéion danse
IX. L’on perçoit des bruits d’armes, des cris de guerre qui se rapprochent
X. Daphnis et Chloé, Tableau I, M. 57 (Nocturne)
XI. Danse lente et mystérieuse des Nymphes
XII. Introduction
XIII. Danse guerriere
XIV. Bryaxis ordonne d’amener la captive
XV. Danse suppliante de chloe
XVI. Soudain l’atmosphére semble chargé d’éléments insolites
XVII. le jour se léve. On perçoit des chants d’oiseaux
XVIII. Le vieux berger Lammon explique
XIX. Pantomime - Daphnis et Chloé miment l’adventure de pan et de Syrinx
XX. Entre en groupe de juenes filles costumées en bacchantes
XXI. Danse generale (bacchanale)

The third CD is the stunning Daphnis et Chloé, M. 57 (Complete Ballet score), a work, moreover a masterpiece of Impressionist orchestration, begins with the glamourous Introduction et Danse religieuse, the cinematic Les jeunes filles attirent Daphnis – Danse Générale and the forcefully glistening Chloe est entrainée dans la danse des jeunes gens and then we are graced by the delightful Mais dans un geste brusque Daphnis écarte le bouvier et s’approche, the emboldened Danse grotesque de Dorcon, the ambient Danse légère et gracieuse de Daphnis, a dutiful growth within the immense Daphnis et Chloè enlacès and the stoically tuneful Lycéion danse and the flirtacious L’on perçoit des bruits d’armes, des cris de guerre qui se rapprochent.

Along next is the captivating Danse lente et mystérieuse des Nymphes, a veritably haunting Introduction, and then we are gifted the starkly actioned of Danse guerriere, the flourishing Bryaxis ordonne d’amener la captive, then comes the organic Danse suppliante de chloe, the heartfelt Soudain l’atmosphére semble chargé d’éléments insolites, the effervescent le jour se léve. On perçoit des chants d’oiseaux, with the recording rounding out on the quietly colorful Le vieux berger Lammon explique, the all-emracing notes of Pantomime - Daphnis et Chloé miment l’adventure de pan et de Syrinx, and both the euphorically charged duo of Entre en groupe de juenes filles costumées en bacchantes and the finale piece Danse generale (bacchanale).

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