The harp is a discreet but omnipresent instrument in French music of the Belle Époque. Its delicate, pearlescent textures, its evocation of an imagined ancient sound, its vibrant colours: all of these qualities predestined it for an aesthetic in which Symbolism and soon Impressionism would set the tone.
The imaginary Antiquity that bathes Debussy's Deux danses, where Dorian and Lydian modes alternate with archaisms, and the diaphanous tones of Lorraine-born Pierné in his evocative Konzertstück, will enjoy a new incarnation under the fingers of the talented Alexandra Bidi.
Another Lorraine-born composer, the decadent symbolist Verlaine, offers the inspiration of his Fêtes galantes, bringing together Watteau and the Commedia dell'arte, to Fauré's highly evocative Masques et Bergamasques.
Ma Mère l'Oye (My Mother Goose) is one of Ravel's forays into the magical world of our tender years, where imagination reigns supreme, making visible, through the grace of a child's gaze, the marvels of the everyday world around us. It was for the children of his friends the Godebskis that he composed this set of pieces that revisit Perrault's fairy tales in music. Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb or Little Ugly Girl, the Empress of the Pagodas, all meet in the fairytale garden of Ravel's orchestration, which here attains the heights of evocation, gentleness and sublimely blended timbre to usher us into this realm of multiple splendours.
