“Listen! Listen! Do you know what you hear? It is I, Ondine, spirit of the water, who brushes these drops. The water on the resonant panes of your windows, lit by the gloomy rays of the moon. And here, in a gown of watered silk, gazing from my chateau terrace, I contemplate the beautiful starry night and the restless sleeping lake. 
The waves are my sisters, swimming the paths which wander towards my palace… The walls are at the bottom of the lake, in a fluid structure of earth and fire and air. 
Listen! Listen! Do you know what you hear? My father strikes the water with an alder branch. My sisters caress the grass with arms of white foam, lift the water lilies, move the rushes, and tease the bearded willow which casts its line, baited with leaves, into the darting water.” 
When she had breathed her song, she begged me – begged me – to put her ring on my finger; to be her husband and sink with her down – down to her drowned palace and be king of all the lakes. I told her I loved a mortal woman. Abashed and vexed, she dissolved into tears and laughter; vanished in a scatter of rain – white streams across the dark night of my window.”

I could only write again the poetic words of Aloysius Bertrand from Gaspard de la Nuit (1842) in order to inform you that Jean-Frédéric Neuburger will perform Ravel’s masterpiece on May the 11th during Les Athénéennes festival… 25 minutes of amazing piano, of virtuosity, of phantasmagoria… Close your eyes and listen…

Wednesday, May 11h @ 8pm
Rue de l’Athénée 4, 1205 Geneva
Price: 40.-
Book online