L'eventail de Jeanne & Ma mere l'oye Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire & John Axelrod

• 1 Prelude 03:52
• 2 Tableau 1: Danse du rouet et Scene (Dance of the Spinning Wheel and Scene) 03:51
• 3 Tableau 2: Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty) 02:48
• 4 Tableau 3: Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bete (Conversations between Beauty and the Beast) 05:25
• 5 Tableau 4: Petit Poucet (Hop-o-my-Thumb) 05:33
• 6 Tableau 5: Laideronnette, imperatrice des Pagodes (Little Ugly, Empress of the Pagodas) 05:05
• 7 Tableau 6: Apotheose (Le Jardin feerique, The Fairy Garden) 04:17
• 8 Fanfare 01:42
• 9 Marche 03:25
• 10 Valse 03:51
• 11 Canarie 02:07
• 12 Bourree 03:26
• 13 Sarabande 03:42
• 14 Polka, Op. 95 02:12
• 15 Pastourelle, FP 45 01:57
• 16 Rondeau 03:38
• 17 Kermesse-Valse 04:56
• Total Runtime 01:01:47

Info for L'eventail de Jeanne & Ma mere l'oye

Ravel’s much-loved Mother Goose Suite vividly portrays familiar fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty and Hop-o’-my-Thumb, and is heard here in its expanded ballet version with a scene-setting Prélude. 1920s Paris was a hotbed of creative collaboration, and the children’s ballet L’Éventail de Jeanne (Jean’s Fan) brought together composers including members of Les Six to create a joyous mélange of influence and individuality, from Ferroud’s Stravinsky-tinted Marche to Poulenc’s catchy Pastourelle, and from Ravel’s glorious opening Fanfare to Schmitt’s truly grand Carnival Waltz finale. This is the first recording of the complete L’Éventail de Jeanne to be made by a French orchestra.

„Jeanne Dubost, a fashionable Paris hostesses and patron of the arts, gave ten young composers a leaf from her fan with a request to compose music for a ballet. With eventual score was given the title, L’Eventail de Jeanne, and was intended for her young pupils, though in the event it received a stellar premiere at the Paris Opera, and featured the precocious young ballerina, Tourmanova. The composers took their task very seriously and produced ten charming cameos opening with Ravel’s Fanfare and ending with a big Valse scene from Florent Schmitt. In between we have a naughty Valse from Ibert; a gorgeous little Polka from Milhaud, and a gentle Pastourelle from Poulenc. You can almost see the young children dancing to such a glorious score. It is here coupled not with the usual orchestral suite, but the longer complete ballet, Ma Mere L’oye (Mother Goose), which is most welcome, particularly so in John Axelrod’s wonderfully atmospheric and detailed performance where pianissimos are just magically audible. Maybe we always read too much into the nationality of orchestras, but the National des Pays de la Loire has that sound of the French orchestras of yesteryear, before an international quality became the norm. The big question that remains is: ‘where has this disc been hiding since its recording in 2012?’ It is certainly one of the gems in the Naxos catalogue, though surely someone could have come up with the idea of balancing the sound levels between the two works recorded at very differing sessions.“ (David’s Review Corner)

Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
John Axelrod, conductor

John Axelrod
After successful tenures as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Theatre, and as Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, in 2011 John Axelrod was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe” Verdi (LaVerdi), and in 2014 he became the new Artistic and Musical Director of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (ROSS). Since 2001 he has conducted over 160 orchestras around the world, thirty operas and fifty world premières. Some of his long- term relationships with European orchestras include the Orchestre de Paris, the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Turin, Orchestra Del Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the RSO Wien and the Mariinsky Orchestra, among many others. In Japan he regularly conducts the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and in the United States he has often performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony, among others. John Axelrod’s opera activity is extensive. He graduated in 1988 from Harvard University. Trained personally by Leonard Bernstein in 1982, he also studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin in 1996.

Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire
In September 1971 the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire gave its first concerts in Nantes and Angers under the baton of Pierre Dervaux. Created on the initiative of Marcel Landowski, music director at the Ministry of Culture, the original orchestra was formed by amalgamating the Nantes Opera Orchestra and the Angers Orchestra of the Société des Concerts Populaires. Thus, since its beginning, the orchestra has been based in two cities: Angers and Nantes. Pierre Dervaux was its first music director, followed by Marc Soustrot from 1976 to 1994, and Hubert Soudant from 1994 to 2004. The orchestra became “national” in 1996 with further concerts in Germany, Hungary, Austria, China, Japan and elsewhere. Following the Brazilian Isaac Karabtchevsky, the American conductor John Axelrod was appointed music director in September 2010, and was succeeded in February 2013 by Pascal Rophé, who has brought his own characteristic contribution to the orchestra’s repertoire. The Orchestra is supported financially by the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire, the Ministry of Culture, the Nantes and Angers town councils, and the Départements of Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire and Vendée.

Booklet for L'eventail de Jeanne & Ma mere l'oye