Ravel: L'heure Espagnole & Boléro

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Ravel's sense of instrumental characterisation is crucial, and the results are delectable. All the instruments used are listed in the booklet alongside their players. But the voices are just... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2023, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 16th Jun 2023
Catalogue No: HMM905361
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 64 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

16th June 2023
Gramophone Magazine

August 2023

Editor's Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2023
International Classical Music Awards

2024

Winner - Assorted Programs

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Ravel: L'heure Espagnole

Work length49:10

$25.20

$31.20

$38.40

Isabelle Druet, Julien Behr (tenor), Loïc Félix (tenor), Thomas Dolié, Jean Teitgen
Les Siècles
François-Xavier Roth

Introduction

Track length2:23

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Señor Torquemada, horloger de Tolède ?(Ramiro, Torquemada)

Track length1:56

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Totor ! (Concepción, Torquemada, Ramiro)

Track length1:55

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II reste, voilà bien ma chance ! (Concepción, Ramiro)

Track length2:30

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II était temps, voici Gonzalve ! (Concepción, Gonzalve)

Track length3:08

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C'est fait, l'horloge est à sa place (Ramiro, Concepción, Gonzalve)

Track length1:40

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Maintenant pas de temps à perdre ! (Concepción, Gonzalve)

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Salut à la belle horlogère ! (Iñigo, Concepción)

Track length2:07

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Voilà !.. Et maintenant à l'autre ! (Ramiro, Concepción, Iñigo)

Track length1:30

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Évidemment, elle me congédie (Iñigo)

Track length2:21

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Voilà ce que j'appelle une femme charmante (Ramiro)

Track length2:17

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Monsieur, ah ! Monsieur ! (Concepción, Ramiro)

Track length0:31

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Enfin, il part ! (Iñigo, Concepción)

Track length3:04

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Voilà l'objet ! (Ramiro, Concepción, Iñigo)

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Ah ! Vous, n'est-ce pas, preste ! (Concepción, Gonzalve)

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En dépit de cette inhumaine (Gonzalve)

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Voilà ce que j'appelle une femme charmante ! (Ramiro, Concepción)

Track length2:47

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Oh ! La pitoyable aventure ! (Concepción, Gonzalve)

Track length2:38

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Voilà !... Et maintenant, Señora, je suis prêt (Ramiro, Concepción)

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Mon œil anxieux interroge (Iñigo, Gonzalve)

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Adieu, cellule, adieu, donjon (Gonzalve)

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ll n'est, pour l'horloger, de joie égale (Torquemada, Iñigo, Gonzalve)

Track length2:11

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Pardieu, déménageur, vous venez à propos ! (Iñigo, Torquemada, Ramiro, Concepción, Gonzalve)

Track length1:21

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Un financier... (Gonzalve, Iñigo, Concepción, Torquemada)

Track length3:26

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Ravel: Boléro

Work length15:16

Album only

Les Siècles
François-Xavier Roth

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Recording of the Week, L'Heure espagnole from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles

16th June 2023

Period instruments lend a delicious piquancy and wit to Ravel's Franco-Spanish farce about a libidinous clock-maker's wife intent on making the most of her husband's absence, with a stylish cast led by French mezzo Isabelle Druet.

Continuing their exploration of Ravel’s output, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles offer us two works linked by his love of Spain.

Alongside the famous Bolero, which regains its original flavour here on period instruments, is Ravel’s first opera, which flirted with libertinism: though its outstanding cast consists entirely of native French-speakers, this caustic ‘Hour’ remains quintessentially Spanish.

Reviews

September 2023

Ravel's sense of instrumental characterisation is crucial, and the results are delectable. All the instruments used are listed in the booklet alongside their players. But the voices are just as crucial. Roth has, again, been highly selective with his singers – all Francophone and strikingly well matched to their roles.

Nov/Dec 2023

[L’heure espagnole] Roth leads a lively and taut performance, and one that revels in the composer’s exploration of musical colors. The vocal cast is equally fine, comprising superb singing actors who bring all the security and beauty of voice, and dramatic insightfulness one could wish for...an immensely satisfying and entertaining musical experience.

August 2023

As in previous releases, the orchestral playing is exquisite, the strings silky, woodwinds perfumed, the trumpets (1930s Selmers) sweetly tangy, the trombones suggestively louche.

16th June 2023

The all-Francophone cast is uniformly terrific, not least because everyone’s so mindful of Ravel’s stipulation that (with one exception) all of the performers should ‘speak more than sing’ their roles..That they never feel the need to overplay the sensuality or the broad comedy of the score is due in no small part to the fact that Roth and Les Siècles (performing on instruments from around the turn of the century) supply so much colour and character from the pit.

14th June 2023

Roth’s musicians overplay nothing, bouncing along with the necessary Spanish snap and all the characterful colours expected from French wind instruments more than 100 years old. They equally ensure lively listening in the album’s filler, Boléro.

International Classical Music Awards 2024

Thanks to the ensemble Les Siècles, restoring the sound of the early 20th century Parisian orchestra (just listen to the timbre of the woodwinds!) and the baton of François-Xavier Roth, as well as a select set of singers feeling natural and at ease in this unique incarnation of commedia dell’arte, we receive a truly Spanish hour – à la française – in this recording.

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Ravel: L'heure Espagnole & Boléro

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Recording of the Week, L'Heure espagnole from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles

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