Maurice Ravel's unpublished Amants qui suivez le chemin premiered at the Radio France Montpellier Occitanie Festival last July 9.
The work was performed by Les Siècle--playing, as is their habit, on period-appropriate instruments--and the choir of Radio France under Louis Langrée, who took the place of Francois Xavier Roth. The five-minute work for small choir and orchestra is a musical setting of the poem, Chanson galante by Armand Silvestre--a text that may have been suggested to Ravel by his teacher, Gabriel Faure. Xavier Roth--who had to step down from the podium for "personal reasons"--acknowledged Faure's influence on the work, saying: "This score, imbued with the aesthetic universe of his teacher Gabriel Fauré, nevertheless gives voice to an already singular composer." Radio France also cites Sirènes from Claude Debussy's Nocturnes as an influence.
According to the festival's press kit, Amants qui suivez le chemin is "typical of the period during which Ravel was preparing for the Prix de Rome competition, which he failed five times between 1900 and 1905."
The manuscript was bought by a private individual from the publisher Drouot. It was then purchased by a Parisian bookstore that specialized in autographs. The bookstore's owner offered it for sale, until he realized that the score, containing Ravel's monogram but not his signature, was not found in any catalogue. Neither was it known by any of Ravel's biographers. The manuscript is now in the possession of the Music Department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Durand is expected to publish the score soon.
The piece opened a program of French music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was performed alongside Charlotte Sohy's Thème varié pour violon et orchestra, Op. 15 and the first movement of Faure's Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 14 featuring soloist Renaud Capuçon, and Ravel's Ma Mere l'Oye and Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2. The entire concert can be heard here.
