Description

Preface

I know Maurice Ravel’s marvellous Histoires naturelles well, having sung them often in concert. Discovering other poems by Jules Renard from the same collection, I was spoilt for choice among these vivid and finely-drawn portraits of wild and domestic animals. In my new cycle I have tried to do justice to the precise and elegant language of this unusual bestiary, its humour and vibrant emotion, while also paying a humble tribute to the masterful Ravel.