Two Ravel works depicting the season theme of enchantment, in this case the enchantment one finds in childhood, bookend Aspen alumnus Gil Shaham’s performance of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Violin Concerto, a work described by the Baltimore Sun as “remarkably assured, cohesively constructed and radiantly lyrical, [with] imagination, integrity and heart.”

AMFS Music Director Robert Spano opens the program with Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, a delicate and imaginative suite of fairy-tale pieces. Ranging in mood from whimsical to nostalgic, the piece is full of exquisite orchestral color and detail.

In the concert’s second half, singers from the Aspen Opera Center present Ravel’s one act opera L’enfant et les sortileges, with a libretto by the French celebrity writer known simply by her surname, Colette. The story concerns a rude and rebellious child who is reprimanded by the objects he’s destroyed, and shunned by the plants and animals he’s tortured. A moment of tenderness ultimately leads to forgiveness and redemption in this utterly original creative work.

*Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges is part of the season theme, "Enchantment."