Histoires naturelles

Featuring

Stéphane Degout
Cédric Tiberghien
Matteo Cesari
Alexis Descharmes
Francis Poulenc
Maurice Ravel

Did you know?

1/7

Composer's Artistic Vision

Poulenc believed that to understand how to play his music, one needed to listen to the voice of the poet Apollinaire, indicating a deep connection between his music and Apollinaire's poetry.

Performer Biography

Cédric Tiberghien, the pianist, won the Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatoire at age 17 and later the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in 1998, performing with many of the world's finest orchestras.

Critical Reception

Jules Renard, the author of the poems for Ravel's Histoires Naturelles, was not pleased with Maurice Ravel's musical arrangement of his texts.

Album & Artwork

The album's program is exclusively French, focusing on composers Poulenc and Ravel, with a shared admiration for the poet Apollinaire guiding the selection.

Interpretation

Poulenc instructed performers to sing his Bestiaire with utmost seriousness, 'as if it were Schubert,' forbidding irony in its interpretation.

Performer Biography

Stéphane Degout, the baritone on this recording, is a graduate of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Lyon and has performed at major opera venues worldwide, including the Paris Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala.

Compositional Technique

Ravel's Histoires Naturelles features an innovative approach to vocal writing, intentionally mimicking spoken voice by omitting silent 'e's and using numerous elisions, a technique also found in Debussy's work.