Ravel: L'Heure espagnole / Valses nobles et sentimentales

Maag was a student of an absolute Ravel devotee like Ernest Ansermet, and the RAI recordings show his extraordinary feeling for this music. In the fifties and sixties, RAI organized major concerts with all of the most important soloists and conductors active at the time. The diptych of the two little Ravel operas was entrusted to Maag, who at that time could already look back on a rich collaboration with the orchestras of the Italian Radio. The vocal cast summed up the best that French opera had to offer at the time. And the result was two events that were truly unique and unrepeatable due to the coincidence of fortunate circumstances. There were voices that were already well known at that time for Ravel's roles, such as Michel Sénéchal, Colette Herzog or Philippe Mollet; there were also voices that were at the beginning of a bright career, such as Mady Mesplé (in three roles of Enfant et les Sortilèges) or Eric Tappy (Gonzalve in L'Heure espagnole); and there were voices that had passed through the world of French opera like a comet, but at that very moment fit perfectly into their role, like Andrée Aubery Luchini. That Italian Radio then attached great importance to these recordings is shown by the fact that a special stereophonic recording technique was used both for L'Heure espagnol in Turin and for L'enfant et les Sortilèges in Rome. In Turin, in particular, new tape recorders and new tube microphones were tried out on this occasion, which made it possible to hear a truly surprising sound result for that time after the restoration of the original tape. No listener will believe that this recording is 40 years old! This recording is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and successful.