THE RAVEL BOLERO AT THE FESTIVAL EMERGENTS

Few tunes are as widely recognised as Ravel’s Bolero, for which the composer clearly drew inspiration from Spanish music, something that he also extended to other works, such as the inspiring Alborada del Gracioso. The programme, which is packed with virtuosity and finesse, is supplemented with music by Mozart, who surprised everyone by writing for two soloists as equals and with some technical demands that were very advanced for the time; and Tchaikovsky, who had to defend his work when some people deemed it to be "unplayable" and, against all odds, turned the first bars of this score into one of the most popular fragments of symphonic music of all time. Sibelius similarly constructed the first movement based on a sweet and romantic melody, although soloists dread performing this work due to its extreme technical difficulty.