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25 November 2021

A cunning Little Fox abundant at the Théâtre des

Champs-Élysées

If Leoš Janáček has succeeded hands down in putting nature in sounds in The Cunning Little
Fox, voice-swapping a few times the vocal attributes of animals and humans, it is always
necessary to add the narrative dimension of the tale. Hats off to conductor Mirga Gražinytė-
Tyla,who manages to turn the stage of a concert version with the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées into a window to the world.

The first notes are instructions for use: the rhythms challenge each other and blend into each other,
giving birth to new rhythmic forms, like the elements. For a reading of the cycle of nature, this is
indeed what we expected, but we already feel an additional and unusual angle embellishing the
listening. The musical director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra lines the
flourishing spaces with a thousand colors as well as she assumes minimalism, if not feverishness,