Robin Ticciati & DSO - Ravel & Duparc: Aimer et mourir - BBC Radio 3 'Record Review'

First though some of my favourite brand new recordings this week, one of which begins with perhaps the most radiant sunrise in classical music: the sunrise from Maurice Ravel's Daphne et Chloé the second suite from the ballet score opening this new recording from the DSO Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati. It glows with warmth and glitters with detail, partly the superb playing and Ticciati's sense of the way the score breathes and expands but it’s also a really special recording made in Berlin's Jesus Christus Kirche – close enough to hear every nuance yet without suffocating the sound, there is loads of air and width. The same qualities make Ravel’s noble and sentimental waltzes extraordinarily vivid in this performance and inbetween there's another treat – four songs by Henri Duparc with mezzo Magdalena Kožená – a wonderful foil for Duparc’s rich orchestration with her sensual phrasing and seductive intensity. Duparc’s Aux étoiles, a shimmering orchestral nocturne, is the conclusion of this rather beautiful and imaginatively drawn programme. It’s called Aimer et mourir (Love and death) and it's a new release on Linn Records.