Happy Birthday, Monsieur Ravel! Accurate to the 150th Composer birthday on March 7, 2025, Bertrand Chamayou presents an anniversary present of the musical extra class with his solo album Ravel Fragments. On it, the French pianist closes a discographic gap, which he has left conscious in his total recording released in 2016: in the centre are works of Ravel in his own hands as well as chamayous edits, extended to the birthday program by pieces by composers who were inspired by the piano music of their great predecessor.

Trois chefs-d’oeuvre, dont deux quasi inconnus, interprétés de surcroît par deux interprètes épatants, la fine et véhémente Valérie Aimard et le toujours poétique Cédric Tiberghien : …un disque réellement indispensable.

Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël is a Christmas number with a difference. His last work and one of his most popular compositions, it was written for the Basle Chamber Choir and Orchestra in 1953. The text of the cantata is derived from liturgical and popular texts— including Psalms and part of the Latin Gloria. A notable feature is the intertwining of traditional carols in French and German: appropriate for multilingual Switzerland and also perhaps symbolizing peace among nations seven years after the conclusion of World War II. Honegger scored the cantata for solo baritone, mixed chorus, children’s choir and an orchestra including organ. The combination of the different texts and forms creates a wonderfully uplifting effect.