Sleeping Beauty may have slept for 100 years, but Maurice Ravel certainly didn’t. When he began composing Mother Goose’s Tales in 1908 – inspired by the 17th-century classic fairy tale collection of the same name – there was a clear vision for the suite, which was originally intended for piano four-hands and a gift for his good friends Cipa and Ida Godebski, whose children Jean and Mimi were to play the pieces. Although the work proved too difficult for them, it was premiered in Paris in 1910 by two other young pianists. The following year, Ravel reworked the suite into a ballet, adding interludes and new movements, weaving the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Thumbelina and Beauty and the Beast into a musical journey through the world of childhood.Ravel saw childhood as both playful and fragile and was a master at portraying the light and dark nuances of these stories. For the listener, it is impossible not to perceive the ringing melancholy in the melodies. Maxime Pascal leads us through the evening and breathes new life into the fairy tales, where every note becomes living emotions – dreamy, mysterious and deeply human.