Philharmonia Chamber Players: Turina & Ravel

By turns lively, lyrical, contemplative and stormy, Ravel’s masterpiece requires great technical and expressive skill – and the Philharmonia’s string players have plenty of both. If you’re new to French music, this is a fantastic place to start. Spanish composer Joaquín Turina took what he admired about the music of Debussy and Ravel (whom he met while studying in Paris) and gave it a distinctive Spanish, folkloric flavour. He gave a vivid description of the moment that inspired The Bullfighter’s Prayer: ‘During an afternoon of bullfighting in the Madrid arena … I saw my work. Behind a small door, there was a chapel, filled with incense, where toreadors went right before facing death [and] in front of this poor altar… prayed to God to protect their lives.’