Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit: Ondine; Jeffrey Chappell, pianist

From the March 31, 2015 recital at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. "Gaspard de la Nuit" translates as "Keeper of the Treasures of the Night" and is the title of a collection of prose-poems by the French author Aloysius Bertrand. Ravel took three of these prose-poems and used them as inspiration, giving the resulting piece the subtitle of "Three Poems for Piano". "Ondine" tells the tale of a water sprite who beckons a human to become her mate by describing all of the glories of her underwater kingdom. But when she finishes her enticing song, he tells her that he is in love with a woman, and she spitefully dives back into the lake with a splash.