Ravel, Concerto in G / Jean-Yves Thibaudet

How good it is to stray into Maurice Ravel's garden! We enter through the Fantaisie by his contemporary Mel Bonis, move on to the Concerto in G, which pays triple allegiance to the God Mozart, to Saint-Saëns and to jazz, then soften in the shadow of Ma mère l'Oye, a marvellous vision of children's tales. All set against the backdrop of Debussy's Printemps , which expresses "the slow, suffering genesis of beings and things in nature, followed by the upward blossoming and ending with the radiant joy of being reborn to new life. Because spring is just around the corner, isn't it?