Kirill Petrenko conducts Ravel’s “Boléro”

“I have created only one masterpiece, the Boléro; it’s just a pity there’s no music in it,” was Maurice Ravel’s sarcastic verdict on what remains his most popular composition to this day. Conceived as music for a ballet, his Boléro – almost a precursor to minimalism – rejects any motivic or thematic development in the traditional sense: for 17 minutes, a languid theme repeats over a steady rhythm. The genius lies in its hypnotic effect: newly introduced instruments and provocatively dissonant layers of intervals allow the sound to build steadily – until the tension is released in a bacchanalian outburst.