Boléro

“It’s like a hallucination, bodies embrace each other, a dizzying drunkeness fills the posada, eyes shine, lips are redder, heels hit the floor, the room is full, we jostle each other, we shout the bolero!” This is what critic Pierre de Lapommeraye wrote in 1930 after the premiere of Bolero, conducted by Ravel himself! Indeed, the music of this ballet is built around a diabolic repetition of a single musical phrase, which haunts the work for around 17 minutes in a gradual and enticing crescendo. Although the audience was won over from the premiere onwards, critics did not spare the composer in their judgements: there were those who called it an "anti-musical" work, those who saw it as a modern macabre dance, and those who interpreted it as pathological music… Ravel’s response calmed their criticisms: “I did exactly what I wanted to do, and listeners can take it or leave it.”