Maurice Ravel began work on his Piano Concerto in G in 1929. He planned to play it himself on a world tour that would include not only Europe and the United States, but also South America and East Asia.
It is thus easy to hear the concerto as a sort of musical self-portrait, a manifesto of Ravel’s artistic style and objectives.
Ravel said that his new work was “ a concerto in the truest sense of the word: I mean that it is written very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The music of a concerto should, in my opinion, be lighthearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects. It has been said of certain great classics that their concertos were written not ‘for,’ but ‘against’ the piano. I heartily agree. I had intended to entitle this concerto ‘Divertissement.’ Then it occurred to me that there was no need to do so, because the very title ‘Concerto’ should be sufficiently clear.”
Here is Martha Argerich in the Concerto in G by Maurice Ravel:
