Ravel: Boléro; Rapsodie espagnole; Debussy: Images

Charles Munch was the opposite of the "intellectual" school of French conductors, as typified today by Pierre Boulez. He was a completely spontaneous artist, which is what made him the great Berlioz conductor of our time, and literally anything could happen when he got up onto the podium. It follows then, that his Ravel is not going to be the sort of hyper-precise, calculated sort of interpretation that many fans of the composer expect, but it will be exciting as hell. These three pieces are shrewdly chosen; they are the composer's most extrovert works, and Munch pulls out all of the stops in his performances of them. A classic recording, and a great memento of a unique artist. --David Hurwitz Listen to samples

Revel : Bolero

The Berlin Philharmonic never has had much opportunity to play Ravel, which is a pity because under Pierre Boulez they do it extremely well. Under their current music director, Claudio Abbado, the orchestra more often than not sounds positively comatose. How gratifying then, that with a dynamic conductor and music that's fun to play, they rouse themselves to sound like the world-class ensemble they really can be when they're not resting on their laurels. Boléro is really smashing, with a knockout final cadence, and the solo players in all of these works cover themselves with glory. This is a great Ravel disc. --David Hurwitz Listen to samples

Bolero

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Although raised in Paris, Maurice Ravel made much of his partly Basque ancestry and the influence of Spanish music on his development. At 14 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he was greatly influenced by Erik Satie. With a series of works, Ravel became, next to Debussy, the most popular French composer in the years just before World War I. In 1928, Ravel’s Bolero, written for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, quickly became one of the most popular orchestral scores of the era; six different recordings appeared within a year, it was played frequently on radio, and its title was used for a 1932 Hollywood movie. Audiences of our generation might remember this piece of music from the Movie ‘Ten’

Ravel conceived the work as a technical exercise in a gradual, steadily building crescendo, repeating one rhythmic melody by passing it continuously from solo instruments to instruments in groups and then, finally, to the full orchestra. He insisted it was a simple work, not a virtuosic one. He also took issue with those conductors (including Toscanini) who played it faster than the fifteen-minute duration specified by him in the score.