The Adventures of Little Elephant Babar

Jean de Brunhoff wrote and drew a timeless classic with The Adventures of the Little Elephant Babar in 1931. Poulenc spent the holidays with his brother in 1940, where he studied piano. He was besieged by his cousins and neighbourhood children. The kids put Babar on his music stand and challenged him to improvise to it. Poulenc passed with flying colours.

During the war years, he developed his improvisation into a composition on which he worked for a long time. It became one of his most perfect masterpieces: for narrator and piano. The greatest French actors have recited and recorded it. Huib Ramaer often performs as a narrator and has previously stepped into the spotlight with the National Youth Orchestra in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. With pianist Tobias Borsboom from The Hague at the piano, he narrates Babar in Dutch.

Tobias Borsboom in de pers

“Jonge durfal Tobias Borsboom verdient volle zalen.”

Het Parool

“Een weergaloze Tobias Borsboom riep als meestervertellers eigen de ware spanning op.”

NRC

“Lidy Blijdorp describes Zoltán Kodály’s solo sonata as “a train journey through Hungary, past vast landscapes and ancient villages, with a variety of Hungarian folk music and gypsy sounds.” Lidy covers all of Kodály’s rich colour palette to suggest the various folk music instruments, we hear bagpipes, whistles, cimbaloms and guitars passing by. A masterful solo CD debut!”

Hans Quant in Luister