The influence of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book on Koechlin was profound and Le course de printemps, which gestated over a very long period, was the finest of the tone poems which he gathered together under the composite title, Le livre de la jungle. Although the events depicted are certainly connected with the character and life of Mowgli, the music itself is above all evocative of the jungle itself, its exotically humid atmosphere and unpredictable bursts of violence and animal energy. The underlying sinister ambience is balanced by a Ravelian sensuality (there is even is a hint of Daphnis in the dawn evocation of the opening), while the mysteriously gentle but lustrous string monody which closes the work is other-worldly in its vision of a voluptuous moonlit spring night. Koechlin’s scoring is headily brilliant and one is engulfed in its rich panoply, so that for all the music’s ecclecticism, it has a life and individuality of its own.

Le buisson ardent makes an ideal coupling. An evocation of rebirth – at times passionately intense in the strings (9'50"-11'43), but with the ondes martenot later used to represent the ethereal voice of the reborn spirit. The shimmering gentle ecstasy then gives way to the animation and potency of life itself, first with the jollity of a country dance, but soon becoming much more complex. The work climaxes with a lusciously positive affirmation, but closes gently and rapturously.

Heinz Holliger, justly famous as oboist, shows himself equally sensitive with the baton, inspiring a splendid orchestral response from the Stuttgart players (especially the strings). They in turn are served by a first-class recording, with a tangible ambient warmth, wide dynamic range and a natural concert hall perspective. I cannot think of another CD which would make a better introduction to Koechlin’s exotic sound-world.