Maurice Ravel: Bolero

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozama conducting

1974/1975/1985: Deutsche Grammophon 415 845-2


  1. Bolero

    Tempo di Bolero moderato assai

  2. Une Barque su l’Océan

    Très souple de rythme

  3. Menuet Antique

    Maestoso

  4. Alborada del Gracioso

    Assez vif — Plus lent — Au mouvement

  5. Pavane pour une Infante Défunte

    (Charles Kavaloski, horn)

  6. La Valse   Poème chorégraphique

    Mouvement de Valse viennoise — Un peu plus modéré — 1er mouvement — Assez animé

For the record, I’m firmly in the camp of “Boléro” lovers. But “La Valse&148; blows me away—not just as a musical composition, one I had to obtain a copy of the score for so I could indulge in its every troweled-on or flitting-by orchestral aspect, but also as a masterpiece of art as astonishingly rich historical commentary on the implosion of a sociocultural world…improbably but brilliantly executed via the medium of music.

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Comments © 2018 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.