This new recording of 'Daphnis et Chloé,' Ravel's most sumptuous score, grew from performances of the Classically-inspired ballet at Paris' Opéra Bastille in 2014: Philippe Jordan, Music Director of the Paris Opéra was conducting a complete ballet for the first time and the choreographer, Benjamin Millepied – known to a wide audience for his work on the Oscar-winning film Black Swan, starring his wife, Natalie Portman – was undertaking his first major project for the Opéra before assuming his new role as its Director of Dance in 2014.

Ravel's spectacular musical depiction of a Mediterranean sunrise, a highlight of Daphnis et Chloé, has become one of classical music's 'greatest hits'. It opens the second suite of music that the composer extracted from the ballet, a compact sequence of deliciously sensuous music that is a popular feature of both concerts and recordings. The complete ballet score – which, lasting nearly an hour, is Ravel's longest work – is less frequently heard. Its lavish forces, which include an exotic selection of percussion (with the wind machine notably prominent) and a wordless offstage chorus, perhaps constitute a reason for the relative rarity of its appearance in the world's ballet theatres.