L'éventail de Jeanne & Ma mère l'oye

Featuring

John Axelrod
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
Maurice Ravel
Marcel Delannoy

Did you know?

1/7

Notable Performances

The private premiere of L'Éventail de Jeanne took place in Jeanne Dubost's Paris salon on June 16, 1927, with Maurice Ravel playing a piano transcription of the music.

Notable Performances

The public premiere of L'Éventail de Jeanne was at the Paris Opéra on March 4, 1929, featuring ten-year-old Tamara Toumanova, who later became an international ballet star, in the lead role.

Composition History

L'Éventail de Jeanne (Jean's Fan) is a children's ballet that was commissioned by Parisian hostess and arts patron Jeanne Dubost, who ran a children's ballet school.

Historical Context

The collaborative ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne is typical of 1920s Paris, where there was a reaction in French music against Wagnerian influences, Debussy's impressionism, and the circle around Franck.

Recording & Production

This recording is the first of the complete L'Éventail de Jeanne to be made by a French orchestra.

Composition History

For L'Éventail de Jeanne, Jeanne Dubost gave ten composer friends a leaf from her fan, asking each to write a short dance for her pupils.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Many French composers in the 1920s found inspiration in everyday life, including the circus, music hall, fairground, and jazz, while also looking back to stylized 17th and 18th-century dance forms.