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e exertion of this prolonged creativity took its
toll on Ravel. A er nishing the Piano Concer-
to for the Le Hand, he escaped to the Basque
region to regain strength before completing the
Piano Concerto in G major. Symptoms of the
mysterious neural illness that impaired his abil-
ity to compose and ultimately brought his death
in
—Pick’s disease—had already begun to
surface. Ravel grew nervous as the scheduled
premiere of his Piano Concerto in G major ap-
proached. He determined with good, but sadly
prophetic, humor, “I can’t manage to nish my
concerto, so I’m resolved not to sleep for more
than a second. When my work is nished I shall
rest in this world … or the next!”
e concer-
to was nally completed in
. Ravel decided
against performing the new work himself, in-
stead o ering the premiere (and subsequent Eu-
ropean tour performances) to Marguerite Long,
who gave the premiere on January ,
, with
the composer conducting the Lamoureaux Or-
chestra. Unknowingly, Ravel had created his last
orchestral work.
e opening
Allegramente
of the Piano Con-
certo in G major reveals an exceedingly eclectic
style. A startling snap launches the movement
on its rhythmically propulsive path, under-
scored by the piano guration. Ravel begins
with a Basque-styled theme, perhaps a remnant
of the abandoned piano concerto
Zaspiak-Bat
,
whose music was developed into a piano trio. A
trumpet assumes this melody, giving it a Cop-
landesque coloration.
e rst piano solo wa-
vers between jazz in uences and the composer’s
own “impressionist” language. A high-lying bas-
soon melody and trumpet response accentuate
the jazz legacy.
Ravel heard numerous popular American mu-
sical idioms during his US sojourn, but he
was most impressed with the potential of jazz
and blues. He expressed genuine interest and
support for the further development of these
styles during a speech before students at Rice
University (April ,
): “My journey is en-
abling me to become still more conversant with
those elements which are contributions to the
gradual formation of a veritable school of Amer-
ican music. … May this national American mu-
sic of yours embody a great deal of the rich and
diverting rhythm of your jazz, a great deal of the
emotional expression in your blues, and a great
deal of the sentiment and spirit characteristic of
your popular melodies and songs, worthily de-
riving from, and in turn contributing to, a noble
heritage of music.”
Ravel rst heard George Gershwin’s music in
New York while attending Broadway perfor-
mances of
Funny Face
in
. When asked what
he wanted as a birthday present, Ravel replied
“to hear and meet George Gershwin.” Formal
introductions were made the following year by
a mutual friend, the singer Eva Gauthier. Gersh-
win’s piano playing astounded the Frenchman.
Gauthier wrote, “George that night surpassed
himself, achieving astounding feats in rhythmic
intricacies so that even Ravel was dumbfound-
ed.” When Gershwin traveled to Paris in
, he
asked to study composition with Ravel, only to
receive a complimentary refusal: “Why should
you become a second-rate Ravel when you can
be a rst-rate Gershwin?” e in uence of Ger-
shwin’s piano playing (including distinct echoes
of the
Rhapsody in Blue
) is strongly felt in Ravel’s
Piano Concerto in G major.
Ravel’s rst movement continues along the
lines of a traditional sonata form. Cadenzas for
harp—playing sonorous glissandos and a mel-
ody in harmonics—and the woodwind section
break up the development. A solo-piano caden-
za prefaces the melodically rich recapitulation.
e
Adagio assai
, a movement of exquisite beau-
ty, o ers pure Ravelian lyricism. e solo piano
introduction establishes an atmosphere of mys-
tical simplicity belied by the con icting rhyth-
mic patterns in the le and right hands ( / and
/ , respectively). Strings and woodwinds enter
with greatest delicacy, adding melodic phrases
above the piano accompaniment.
e piano
leads into a central section devoted to harmonic
wandering and an elaborately embellished treble
part. ese gurations gain rhythmic impulse as
the original melody reappears in the soulful En-
glish horn.
Ravel returns to the “divertimento” ideal in his
Presto
nale, a sort of sonata-rondo. Rapid pi-
ano gures combine with clarinet, trombone,
piccolo, and trumpet wails.
is primitivistic
music recalls Stravinsky’s
Petrushka
ballet score.
Clarinets and piano engage in a supple exchange
of ideas. Horns and trumpets add a march-like
theme.
e movement drives excitedly to its
conclusion.
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–75)
Symphony No. in D minor, op.
Scored for two utes and piccolo, two oboes, three
clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four
horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum,
tam-tam, bells, xylophone, two harps, celesta, piano,
and strings
An urgent message came over the
New York
Times
wire in
from Soviet correspondent
Harold Denny: “
. Dmitri Shostakovich, who
fell from grace two years ago, on the way to re-
habilitation. His new symphony hailed. Audi-
ence cheers as Leningrad Philharmonic presents
work.” Although Aram Khachaturian’s Piano
Concerto also received its premiere on that
November concert at the Festival of Soviet
Music, which celebrated the th anniversary of
the October Revolution, it was Dmitri Shosta-
kovich’s Symphony No. that brought the au-
dience to its feet.
e diminutive, bespectacled
composer walked onstage dozens of times to
acknowledge the thunderous ovation. One audi-
ence member, A.N. Glumov, recalled conductor
Yevgeny Mravinsky’s grandiose, sel ess gesture:
“[He] li ed the score high above his head, so as
to show that it was not he, the conductor, or the
orchestra who deserved this storm of applause,
these shouts of ‘bravo’; the success belonged to
the creator of this work.”
e Symphony No. o ered more than “reha-
bilitation”: it was a glorious resurrection for the
recently beleaguered Shostakovich. His troubles
began on January ,
, when
Pravda
printed
an aggressive attack against his latest (and pop-
ularly acclaimed) opera
Lady Macbeth of the Mt-
sensk District
. Titled “Muddle instead of Music,”
this article condemned the “Le ist confusion
instead of natural, human music.
e power of
good music to infect the masses has been sac-
ri ced to a petty-bourgeois, Formalist attempt
Maurice Ravel
Dmitri Shostakovich (1950)
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