Ravel/ Gershwin

Dance music styles in a symphonic medium. Ravel first erects a memorial to the noble and glittering genre of the Vienna waltz in his sumptuous ‘poème chorégraphique’ La valse, in which, to use his own words, “Swirling storm clouds part and.... couples are seen dancing”. The iconic Piano Concerto in G major was inspired by the exciting beat of jazz, which he came to know and love while in America in the 1920s. Gershwin similarly cast the 1920s in music in An American in Paris; his master work immortalizing the ambience of Paris and melodies filtering out from houses is maintained as a whole by jazz phraseology. Rhapsody in Blue is the development of the very same concept to perfection: it is an immaculate jazz concerto packed full with unforgettable musical twists, lush rhythms and the extremes of captivating feelings. Concerto Budapest are conducted by Kossuth and Liszt Prize holder Zoltán Rácz, the soloist being the French-Canadian Louis Lortie, whose performance style has been described by critics as a masterful mixture of profound maturity and playful spontaneity.