Ravel and Poulenc

Charm and Wonder

📍 This event takes place at Powell Hall

Friday, Feb 12, 2027, 7:30pm View Subscriptions Saturday, Feb 13, 2027, 7:30pm View Subscriptions

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Program

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
St. Louis Symphony Chorus | Erin Freeman, director
St. Louis Children’s Choirs | Dr. Alyson Moore, artistic director

Francis Poulenc Gloria
Maurice Ravel L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells)

About this Concert

Prepare for a fantastical adventure as the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and St. Louis Children’s Choirs join the orchestra in this whimsical program. Music Director Stéphane Denève and the musicians start with Poulenc’s uplifting choral-orchestral work, Gloria—one of the composer’s most celebrated accomplishments. Then, in Ravel’s imaginative tale of L’enfant et les sortilèges, clocks, chairs, and teacups all spring to life. The composer’s ability to convey the jesting, waltzing, and often outlandish characters is itself something magical.

- Although Poulenc’s Gloria is a setting of religious text from the Catholic mass, he was also creative with the sources of his musical ideas, including works by Vivaldi and his own operatic works. The most unusual, though, is that he drew inspiration from the liveliness of a group of monks playing a casual game of soccer.
- Maurice Ravel was commissioned to write L’enfant et les sortilèges for a premiere performance at the Paris Opera, but he temporarily paused this and all other music projects to serve in the First World War as an ambulance driver.
- Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard has received three Grammy Awards in her rapidly growing career, one of which was for her performance on a recording of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges.

Artists

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Musicians of the SLSO

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Clocks, chairs, and teacups come alive in Ravel’s imaginative L’enfant et les sortilèges, performed with the Symphony Chorus and the St. Louis Children’s Choirs.

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Ravel and Poulenc

Charm and Wonder

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Program

About this Concert

A few things to know

Artists

Stéphane Denève

Isabel Leonard

St. Louis Symphony Chorus

The St. Louis Children’s Choirs

Musicians of the SLSO

Plan Your Visit

Bruckner’s Fourth

Marsalis’ Fifth

Haydn and Ortiz

Shostakovich and Sibelius

Bernstein and Copland

Get tickets now