Conductor Seiji Ozawa followed his teacher, Charles Munch, as a primary exponent of the French conducting tradition in America, and it is a pleasure to have this release marking his 80th birthday after several years of illness. In a trio of Ravel works he is graceful, attentive to small detail, and even a bit mischievous. Ravel's comic, one-act opera L'enfant et les sortilèges is less often performed outside of the Francophone world, and this live performance from the 2013 Matsumoto Festival in Japan, with the Saito Kinen Orchestra (perhaps new to most non-Japanese audiences) and SKF Matsumoto Chorus and Children's Chorus, marks Ozawa's first recording of the work. The soloists are Western: Isabel Leonard as the Child in Colette's text is lively and not overly cute. The work is beautifully balanced by the short song cycle Shéhérazade, as lushly beautiful as anything Ravel ever wrote, with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham delivering a deeply sensual "Asie" (sample track 26). The final Alborada del gracioso is pure Ozawa, precise and elegant. Highly recommended.