Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major was composed between 1929–1931. The work comprises three movements: Allegramente, Adagio assai, and Presto. After his well-received piano tour of America, Ravel wanted to debut this new work himself. However, health issues precluded this possibility with his preparatory practice of Franz Liszt's and Frédéric Chopin's etudes leading to fatigue. Instead, Marguerite Long — who was known for her performances of the works of Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy and had earlier asked Ravel for a new work, later debuted the concerto. Ravel dedicated the concerto's score to her.
The concerto was heavily influenced by jazz, which, at the time, was highly popular in Paris as well as the USA, where Ravel was travelling. Ravel was impressed by the music he encountered while travelling in the USA and hence the concerto is deeply infused with jazz idioms and harmonies.
Ravel had intended to debut the new concerto with himself at the piano, and in preparation, happily spent long hours at the piano studying the etudes of Chopin and Liszt. However, health problems led to fatigue and eventually he had to settle with conducting the orchestra at the debut. The world premiere came on January 14, 1932 with Ravel conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra and Marguerite Long as soloist. The first North American performances were given simultaneously on the evening of April 22, 1932, by both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra at their home concert halls.
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Instrumentation
The orchestra for this concerto is made up of the following instruments: piccolo, flute, oboe, cor anglais, E-flat clarinet, Soprano clarinet in B-flat and A, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in F, trumpet in C, trombone, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tamtam, wood block, whip, harp, piano, 16 violins, 6 violas, 6 cellos, 4 double basses.
Form
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Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008) |
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This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (November 2008) |
This piece exhibits a standard three-movement concerto structure, with fast first and last movements and a slow middle movement. In terms of overall form, this piece can be termed neo-classical.
The first movement, opening with a whipcrack and hustling and gamboling on, is in sonata-allegro form; however, the traditional key structure of the form has been modified in this case.
The second movement, with its slow opening unaccompanied piano solo reminiscent of a Chopinesque nocturne, is in ternary form with a varied reprise. In this movement from the middle onwards, the cor anglais has an extended solo against a flowing piano accompaniment.
The final movement follows the same form as the first — a sonata with a modified key structure.
Quotes
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This article contains too many quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by removing excessive quotations or transferring them to Wikiquote. Help is available. (April 2008) |
| “ | The G-major Concerto took two years of work, you know. The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of chiseling then began. We’ve gone past the days when the composer was thought of as being struck by inspiration, feverishly scribbling down his thoughts on a scrap of paper. Writing music is seventy-five percent an intellectual activity. | ” |
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—Maurice Ravel[1] |
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| “ | I would quote as one of the best examples of a subtle incorporation of these facets [of jazz] within a composer's style that of the Piano Concerto in G by the fastidious craftsman Maurice Ravel. | ” |
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—Don Banks[2] |
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| “ | The most captivating part of jazz is its rich and diverting rhythm. ...Jazz is a very rich and vital source of inspiration for modern composers and I am astonished that so few Americans are influenced by it. | ” |
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—Maurice Ravel[3] |
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| “ | Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing. | ” |
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—Maurice Ravel[4] |
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References
- ^ New York Philharmonic. “Muti, Uchida, Ravel and Schubert.” The New York Philharmonic, http://nyphil.org/programNotes/Ravel%20Piano%20Concerto%20in%20G%20major.pdf.
- ^ Banks, Don. Converging Streams. The Musical Times, Vol. 111, No. 1528. (June, 1970), pp. 596-599.
- ^ Rogers, M. Robert. Jazz Influence on French Music. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Jan., 1935), pp. 53-68.
- ^ Mawer, Deborah and Jonathan Cross. The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge University Press, 2000. pp. 42
External links
- Piano Concerto: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
- Program notes from the New York Philharmonic (PDF)
- Concerto pour piano et orchestre en sol majeur at Piano Society
- WIMA Score of the solo piano at the beginning of the 2nd mov.
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