Today, a piece I really don’t like. But it is one of the best-known pieces of classical music ever composed, and last week–on the 7th, actually–marked the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. And as performances of a piece I don’t like go, this one’s really very good, and the camera work in this video is pretty terrific.
So here is Bolero by Maurice Ravel. I’ll have more to say about Ravel in future weeks. For years I refused to give him much of a chance, because of how much I disliked Bolero. And yes, I’ve realized belatedly how unfair that was.
I am SHOCKED. Your hatred for Bolero is LEGENDARY!
I like some of Ravel’s stuff, but I absolutely do not like Bolero; it’s incredibly tedious (or so I think). I prefer his La Valse, which to me reads like a *parody* of the grand waltzes of the Strauss era