Ravel, Bolero + La Valse

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!

Jaksot(283)

Gustav Holst: The Planets

Gustav Holst: The Planets

Mr. Holst, wherever you are, I apologize in advance for what I'm about to say. From my research, I know you resented this fact, but unfortunately, I think it's true. Here it is: despite the large cata...

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Franck Symphony in D Minor

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In the 1960s, Leonard Bernstein famously helped to popularize the music of a then relatively obscure composer, Gustav Mahler. His work, as well as the work of other conductors, made Mahler into a clas...

20 Marras 202559min

Ravel and Falla: Echoes of Spain

Ravel and Falla: Echoes of Spain

Nowadays it's hard to imagine Maurice Ravel as a "bad-boy" revolutionary, a member of a group whose name can be loosely translated as The Hooligans. To most listeners today, Ravel's music is the very ...

6 Marras 202557min

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 LIVE w/ The Aalborg Symphony

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 LIVE w/ The Aalborg Symphony

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27 Loka 202559min

Barber Violin Concerto

Barber Violin Concerto

There are so many great apocryphal stories in the long history of classical music, from the reason Tchaikovsky wrote his Sixth Symphony to what famous composers supposedly said on their deathbeds, to ...

9 Loka 202547min

100 Years of Beethoven's Eroica (recordings)

100 Years of Beethoven's Eroica (recordings)

One of my favorite things about having Patreon sponsors is that they often suggest the most fascinating pieces and topics for shows. Adrian, who sponsored a show last year, gave me one of my favorite ...

25 Syys 202555min

The Life and Music of Grazyna Bacewicz

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The great Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski said this after the premature death of his contemporary Grazyna Bacewicz: "She was born with an incredible wealth of musical talent, which she succeeded to...

6 Syys 202557min

Sticky Notes meets You'll Hear It

Sticky Notes meets You'll Hear It

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22 Elo 20251h 10min

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