Bernstein’s Ravel
The second movement of Maurice Ravel’s piano concerto in G is one of my great favorites. And that’s no surprise, because it contains such deep emotional musical expression.
I had previously always been spellbound by Martha Argerich’s performance of this music. However, I heard it today as performed by pianist Leonard Bernstein and it was quite special, as well…
Ravel was born in 1875 and he died in 1937. As such, he was an early 20th century composer, having seen the transition in music from the early part of the 1900’s when Mahler, Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Stravinsky were creating incredible advances in approaches to composition.
Leonard Bernstein was, of course, a composer himself. He spent much time with his friend Aaron Copland, who was helpful to Bernstein in identifying his own unique voice in music composition.
And Bernstein was also legendary as a performer and as a teacher. I cannot think of a musician who had a greater impact on the American public than Bernstein during the years that he was conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1950’s and until his death in 1990.
Here is Maurice Ravel’s Piano concerto in G, second movement, Adagio Assai, as performed by L. Bernstein:
Tags: Maurice Ravel, Piano concerto in G, Bernstein