Hyperion Records

Sur l’herbe returns to the conversational tone of Histoires naturelles, but retaining all mute ‘e’s. The courtly, pseudo-eighteenth-century atmosphere is Ravel’s home territory, suggested by Phrygian modality with chromatic alterations. Needless to say, the ‘Do, mi, sol, la, si’ and ‘Do, mi, sol’ of the poem are treated as they deserve.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2009