From a distant land

Ravel was endlessly inspired by the mystique of unknown places far and near — beginning just across the border from his Basque country in Spain, a fascination vividly reflected in the folk nuances of works like the Rapsodie Espagnole (1907) and Alborada del gracioso (1905), as well as in his ode to an iconic Spanish dance: the Boléro (1928). On the other side of Europe, the famous Tzigane (1924) exhibited the virtuosity of Hungarian-Romani violinist Jelly d'Arányi, whose gifts inspired this superlatively challenging showpiece.

Like many of his predecessors and contemporaries, Ravel was occasionally influenced by veins of artistic Orientalism still in vogue at the beginning of the turn of the century, notably in the Shéhérazade Overture (1898), a dreamlike evocation of Middle Eastern folklore. And from the other side of the Atlantic, as strands of the nascent and still exotic art form of jazz made its way into Ravel's music, especially evident in the rythms and harmonies of the Violin Sonata (1927) and the Piano Concerto in G (1931).