The sesquicentennial of the birth of the French composer Maurice Ravel today meets a work that remains in force, such as the famous Bolero (1928), which all the time interpret the most important orchestras in the world and also inspires new artistic pieces, such as the choreographic version of Maurice Béjart, released in 1961.
To join the celebration of the event, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra will carry out the world premiere of an unpublished score of Ravel, in a concert that will also mark the debut of director Gustavo Dudamel with that group. It’s about Prelude and dance, Composed in 1902. The piece is part of the early cantata Semiramis, from the time of Ravel student, and partially lost.
The autograph manuscript of the piece was since 2000 in the National Library of France, but had not been interpreted with orchestra.
Ravel is considered a musician of impressionism, movement in vogue in France at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, which is also celebrated 150 years this 2025.
In addition, from August 28 to September 7, the Ravel Festival will be held in San Juan de Luz, Ciboure and other localities of the French Basque Country. The program of that artistic meeting will be dedicated entirely to the works that the pianist also composed, to the scores of the composers who already inspired the artists who today claim their legacy.
There will be much part of Ravel’s repertoire, as a concert for the left hand, Don Quijote and Dulcinea, Pavana for a deceased infant, Concert in sun, Spanish rapsodia, bolero, y Daphnis and Chloéas well as most piano works alone, songs and camera music.
Ravel’s musical production has gone to the public domain in much of the world. At the beginning of 2025, in the United States the copyright of the Bolero, Registered in 1929. In the middle of last year, a French court refused to recognize the stage Alexandre Benois as co -author of the piece and therefore extends his property to the heirs of the Russian.
Ravel was born on March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, part of the French Basque Country. His mother, Marie Delourt-Ravel (1840-1917), was of Basque origin and an old Spanish family.
He entered the Conservatory of Paris in 1889, where he met and became an endearing friend of the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, who performed his best works.
He Bolero, Piece that will be the celebrations center in the coming months in the most important ballet enclosures in the world, premiered in the Paris Opera in November 22 in 1928 as a choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and decorated by Alexandre Benois. First it was the dance and the orchestral version was released in Paris, in January 1930, with Ravel at the head of the orchestra.
Dedicated to the Russian dancer and patron Ida Rubinstein, quickly became one of the best known works of the composer and then one of the most famous of the twentieth century.
The renowned French dancer and choreographer (then naturalized Swiss) Maurice Béjart was in charge of revolutionizing Ravel’s piece in 1961, highlighting its importance in ballet, and endowed it with a very own artistic load to associate it with its name: Bolero De Béjart, with the ballet of the twentieth century, a legacy that the Béjart Ballet Lausanne maintains.
This version had the Argentine dancer Jorge Donn, who interprets the melody, while on a second level the rhythm is represented by a group of dancers. In a second stage, the protagonist was the Brazilian dancer Marcia Haydée.
Donn (1947-1992) participated in the film One and the other, of the French director Claude Lelouch, where in the famous final scene dances the Bolero.
This work was heard at the opening of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Composer Lawrence Petitgirard, former president of the French Authors Society, Composers and Music Editors, said Ravel’s piece It plays every 10 minutes in the world and, as lasts 17 minutes, it is interpreted at any time somewhere
.
More acts in the US and Mexico
Maurice Ravel died in Paris after a surgical intervention on December 28, 1937, at age 62.
The work Semiramis It was written when Ravel was 27 years old; It is one of the many choral and orchestral works that he wrote to get the Rome Prize, although he never obtained it, despite having presented four times.
The commemoration for Ravel in New York also include an exhibition prepared by the Ravel Edition, which opened on March 3 and will be open until May 20. It includes documents related to the composer, including autograph manuscripts assigned by Morgan Library & Museum, as well as the private newspaper of the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, great friend of Maurice Ravel.
The rest of the concert that will direct Dudamel, in which the pianist Yuja Wang will also participate, will be made up of the piano concert in Sol Mayor and the concert for Ravel’s left hand, as well as Americas, of Varèse, y An American in Paris, The Gershwin.
Meanwhile in Mexico, dancer Elisa Carrillo will perform the choreography Bolero On May 27 at the National Auditorium of the CDMX, with 40 dancers on stage.