Ravel, Bolero + La Valse

Maurice Ravel the Magician, the Swiss Watchmaker, the aloof, the
elegant, the precise, the soulful, the childlike, the naive, the
warm, the radical, the progressive. These are all words that were
used to describe a man of elegant contradictions throughout his
life and into today. I talked a lot about Ravel’s skill with
orchestration last week when we discussed Mussorgsky’s Pictures
at an Exhibition, but Ravel's brilliance and creativity in terms
of orchestral sound is absolutely unparalleled in musical
history. But Ravel is somebody I’ve very rarely covered on the
show, partly because he didn’t write very many large scale works
that would cover a whole hour long episode. Well, it took 6 years
for me to figure it out, but I realized a little while ago that I
could cover two of Ravel’s shorter pieces and put them together
on a double bill, so to speak. So today I’m going to tell you
about Ravel’s most beloved and most despised piece, Bolero, and
about my favorite piece of Ravel’s, La Valse. These are two
pieces that could not be more different in their aims, in their
constructions, and in their impacts on the audience. They are
both thrillingly exciting, but in completely different ways. A
good performance of Bolero should make you want to jump out of
your seat with excitement, while a good performance of La Valse
should terrify you to your core. Join us to learn all about it!