Le Jardin Féerique: French Music For Flute, Bassoon And Harp – Arioso Furioso Trio

This Da Vinci Classics Album proposes to the listener an itinerary among French works originally written or transcribed for the harp, many of which have a particular connection with the world of enchantment and mystery. There is Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, a homage to the Baroque era in which a quintessentially Impressionistic piece (i.e., Clair de Lune) finds its place, with its liquid suggestions and magical refractions. Mystery is also evoked in Marcel Tournier’s Féerie (Prélude et Dance), one of his most beloved pieces. An early work by its composer, it is by no means an arid exercise: it is a wonderful immersion into a world of manifold colours and multifaceted realities. These themes were interesting also for Jean-Michel Damase. His Trio, one of his best-known works, reveals the vastity of his emotional palette and of the resources he could use for expressing it. The CD’s programme is completed by another work which is among the best known and most beloved of the entire piano literature, i.e. Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye. Together, these pieces invite us to a listening experience which is more akin to a children’s fantasy film than to what happens in a traditional concert; and our dive into the magic of the harp’s sound will certainly be highly rewarding.