DESCRIPTION:
Maurice Ravel - "Ondine," from Gaspard de la nuit, 1908-1909.

Performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Gaspard de la nuit is a three-"poem" suite, each work based on a poem by Aloysius Bertrand. This piece, "Ondine," depicts a water fairy wooing an observer, trying to seduce him into the watery depths of her kingdom. The shimmering opening reflects light ripples upon a calm body of water, and gradually builds into a torrent of notes.

"Listen! Listen! It is me, Ondine, spirit of the water, brushing with these drops of water the resonant diamond panes of your window lighted by the gloomy rays of the moon; and here in a silk dress, is the lady of the manor, gazing from her balcony at the beautiful starry night and the lovely sleeping lake."
"Each wave is a water sprite who swims in the current; each current is a path, winding toward my palace, and my palace is fluidly built, at the bottom of the lake, in the triangle formed by fire, earth, and air."
"Listen! Listen! My father is beating the croaking water with a green alder branch, and my sisters caress, with their arms of foam, the cool islands of grass, of water lilies, and gladiolas or tease the decrepit willow, who is fishing with a line of leaves."
Her song murmured, she begged me to receive her ring on my finger, to be her husband, and to visit her palace with her, to be the king of the lakes.
And when I answered that I loved a mortal woman, sullen and vexed, she cried a few tears, burst out laughing, and vanished in a sudden shower that streamed white down my blue windowpanes.