Maurice Ravel once commented that he preferred jazz to grand opera, and remarked, “The most captivating part of jazz is its rich and diverting rhythm… Jazz is a very rich and vital source of inspiration for modern composers, and I am astonished that so few Americans are influenced by it.”
On his return from an extended visit to the US, Ravel documented his jazz impressions into a buddying piano concerto. He wrote, “The G-major Concerto took two years of work. The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of chiseling then began. We’ve gone past the days when the composer was thought of as being struck by inspiration, feverishly scribbling down his thoughts on a scrap of paper. Writing music is seventy-five percent an intellectual activity.”
Ravel was eager to play the premiere performance but he started to suffer from assorted health problems. It eventually premiered on 14 January 1932 with Ravel conducting the Orchestre Lamoureux.
