Hogweed – Boléro (Maurice Ravel)

Hogweed on Apple Music:
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and YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@hogweed1080
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From ” The Poet ”
Label: Poet Songs – 655321
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1985

Tracklist
A1 You’re Leaving Town
A2 Bolèro
A3 Summertime
A4 The Poet
B1 How Could I Be Wrong
B2 The Corridor
B3 Nights

Keyboards – Michael Andreas Busch
Guitar [Gitarren] – Michael Geyer
Drums – Pit Goss
Bass – Andreas Bofinger
Flute [Flöten] – Matthias Busch
Vocals – Michael Klein
Guest [Gastmusiker], Percussion – Flocki Weber

Recorded At – Ohrenschmaus-Studio
Record Company – Ohrenschmaus

℗ 2023 Hogweed

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Boléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937).
Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel’s most famous musical composition.

Boléro epitomises Ravel’s preoccupation with restyling and reinventing dance movements. It was also one of the last pieces he composed before illness forced him into retirement. The two piano concertos and the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée song cycle were the only compositions that followed Boléro.

Composition

While on vacation at St Jean-de-Luz, Ravel went to the piano and played a melody with one finger to his friend Gustave Samazeuilh, saying “Don’t you think this theme has an insistent quality? I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can.”
This piece was initially called Fandango, but its title was soon changed to “Boléro”.
According to Idries Shah the main melody is adapted from a tune composed for and used in Sufi training.

Premiere and early performances

The composition was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and designs and scenario by Alexandre Benois.
The orchestra of the Opéra was conducted by Walther Straram. Ernest Ansermet had originally been engaged to conduct during the entire ballet season, but the musicians refused to play under him.

Boléro became Ravel’s most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it.
It is usually played as a purely orchestral work, only rarely being staged as a ballet.
According to a possibly apocryphal story from the premiere performance, a woman was heard shouting that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel is said to have remarked that she had understood the piece.

The piece was first published by the Parisian firm Durand in 1929. Arrangements of the piece were made for piano solo and piano duet (two people playing at one piano), and Ravel himself arranged a version for two pianos, published in 1930.

The first recording was made by Piero Coppola in Paris for The Gramophone Company on 8 January 1930. The recording session was attended by Ravel.
The following day, Ravel conducted the Lamoureux Orchestra in his own recording for Polydor.
That same year, further recordings were made by Serge Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Willem Mengelberg with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Toscanini

Conductor Arturo Toscanini gave the American premiere of Boléro with the New York Philharmonic on 14 November 1929.
The performance was a great success, bringing “shouts and cheers from the audience” according to a New York Times review.

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