Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé - Suite N° 2

The Ballets Russes, the famous ballet company created by the Russian impresario Sergéi Diaghilev in 1907, celebrated its first official season in Paris from May to June 1909, with music by Chopin and by the Russians Borodin, Tcherepnin, and Arenski. The company made a sensation with its vitality and lavish set, which far surpassed the ballet being produced in France in those years. They would have to return year after year. Diaghilev, who was not lacking in instinct, thought it convenient to leave the Russian composers at home for the time being, and the same year of his irruption on the French scene he commissioned Maurice Ravel to compose a ballet.

The ballet
The work, Daphnis et Chloé, described by Ravel as a "choreographic symphony", about an hour-long, suffered numerous production problems, to which were added modest trifles between egos, to which Ravel, who did not share at all Diaghilev's opinion that the choreography should have prominence over the music, was no stranger.

Because of all this, it was not premiered until 1912, though with a lukewarm reception. But it was fully reversed in its re-release the following year. Today it is considered one of Ravel's most brilliant works, if not his masterpiece.

Ravel (1875 - 1937) at the piano, in 1912

The work, in one act divided into three scenes, is based on a Greek poem of the second century and tells the eventful love story between two children: a goatherd, Daphnis, and a shepherdess, Chloé, which ends happily for both of them.

The suites
The work requires a huge orchestra including about fifteen percussion instruments and a "mute" (wordless) choir on and off stage. The complexity of this production led Ravel, a year before its premiere, to extract from the scores an orchestral suite with the first scenes. The same year of the premiere, Ravel extracted a second part, Suite N° 2, taken from the three final scenes and which has become the most demanded on the world's stages, and with it, the most popular.

The rendition is by the Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Australian maestro Daniel Smith.