The secret behind why evoking dance music styles in a symphonic medium is so popular with audiences is not so difficult to unravel: combining a flow of irresistibly sweeping rhythms with the elegant and powerful sound of an orchestra makes for a powerful impact. And of course there's also the fact that the very greatest of music history had a fondness for composing in this genre, which all but guaranteed some superb treatments – such as in this programme.
In his dance poem La Valse, Ravel erects a monument to the noble and multifarious Viennese waltz, fluidly evoking airily gliding couples with the tools of music. His Piano Concerto in G major was inspired by another kind of pulsing excitement: jazz, which he got to study up close in America in the 1920s. Gershwin also created a relic of the same decade: His classic An American in Paris, inspired by the melodies filtering out from buildings, is also jazzy in character. Meanwhile, Rhapsody in Blue, is without a doubt both Gershwin's most popular piece and the culmination of his creative concept. It is brimming with suggestive and energetic musical twists, exuberant rhythms and an extreme variability of gripping emotions.
Conducting Concerto Budapest is Zoltán Rácz, winner of the Kossuth and Liszt prizes. Featured as soloist is the French-Canadian Louis Lortie, whose playing international critics have described as a brilliant blend of profound maturity and playful spontaneity.

Presented by: Concerto Budapest