Noah Vinzens, Schwäbische Zeitung, 21st January 2022
“Playful, cheeky, light-hearted: The oboe opens Maurice Ravel’s Orchestra Suite with a soft solo performance. The clarinet provides an answer while the string section is just quietly plucking away at their instruments in the background. “Le tombeau de Couperin” (Couperin’s Tomb), which Ravel had originally conceived as a six set piano piece, was only converted into a four set orchestra piece by the composer much later. Right from the start, conductor Michael Francis showcases the seemingly endless sound capabilities of Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz at the Graf Zeppelin-Haus (GZH) with purely French works, beautifully and dynamically differentiated, making even the faintest nuances audible.”
