François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles perform an all-Ravel concert

Maestro François-Xavier Roth leads a lineup of fantastic French singers and his celebrated orchestra Les Siècles in an all-Ravel concert with Spanish flair at Paris's famed Théâtre des Champs-Élysées! Ravel had a lifelong fascination with Spanish culture, an interest that stemmed from the folk songs his Basque mother sang to him as a child. The program begins with Alborada del gracioso, an orchestrated version of an exquisite piano composition from Miroirs, before turning to the vibrant Rapsodie espagnole. This piece was described by Manuel de Falla as "surprising one by its Spanish character, achieved through the free use of the modal rhythms and melodies and ornamental figures of our ‘popular’ music." Continuing the Iberian theme is Ravel’s most famous work, the timeless Boléro, and his short first opera L’heure espagnole, a one-act farce following the antics of a watchmaker’s wife while her husband is preoccupied with winding the town’s clocks.

Photo © Hartmut Nägele