Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 08/02/2005, uploaded on 01/22/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Tzigane - Rapsodie de Concert         Maurice Ravel

In 1922, Ravel heard the Hungarian violinist Jelly d'Arányi and was inspired to compose Tzigane (the French word for Gypsy), a work she premiered in London in 1924. 

Tzigane draws on both authentic Hungarian Gypsy music and the westernized Style Hongrois. The piece has two parts: a long, rhapsodic solo cadenza followed by a theme and variation dance that becomes increasingly boisterous.  Although the music sounds improvisatory and impulsive, Ravel wrote every sound to be created. Each florid arpeggio, eyebrow-raising dissonance, tempo fluctuation, and ricochet of the bow is meticulously notated on the score, thus leaving it to the performer to make them seem spontaneously virtuosic.    Eugenia Choi

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.