Maurice Ravel (Bolero)

French, of paternal Swiss and maternal Basque descent, Ravel combined skill in orchestration with meticulous technical command of harmonic resources. He wrote in an attractive musical idiom that was entirely his own, in spite of contemporary comparisons with Debussy, a composer his senior by some twenty years.

A Hollywood film titled Bolero (1934), starring Carole Lombard and George Raft, made major use of the theme. Ravel made one of his few recordings of his own music when he conducted his Boléro with the Lamoureux Orchestra in 1930.

Remarkably, Ravel composed both of his piano concertos at the same time. ” He completed the Concerto for the Left Hand first. The work was commissioned by Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during World War I. Ravel was inspired by the technical challenges of the project. As Ravel stated, “In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands.”

Ravel's Bolero is a composition that rose from the depths of nonchalant dismissal by Ravel's contemporaries to being one of the few truly recognizable melodies in classical music. Sadly, you rarely seem to see it on the concert bill these days. Perhaps it's too disciplined for today's classical conductors who struggle to maintain their freedom of self-expression while they pander to a diminishing audience of aging donors.

The opening concert for the 2002 season is Maurice Ravel, with Daniel Barenboim as the conductor. The performance was held in Carnegie Hall, Chicago, IL. Chicago Symphony Orchestra did the performance, with no solo. The orchestra has four movements, with the first movement having sub movements. They are Rhapsodie Espnole, Pavane for a Dead Princess, Alborada del Gracioso, and Bolero.

The concert hall was large and gold paint with ...