Ravel in Boston

Ravel’s first engagement on his American tour in 1928 was as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While he was spending his first days in New York, he was invited by Mrs Thomas Edison to a concert which the orchestra was giving on 8 January at Carnegie Hall. After the concert, he was asked by the orchestra’s conductor Sergei Koussevitzky to conduct an additional concert prior to the first scheduled one in Boston. And so Ravel’s first professional appearance in America took place in Cambridge at Harvard University in the Sanders Theater on 12 January, in a programme which included the Rapsodie espagnole, La Valse and Shéhérazade, with Lisa Roma as the soprano soloist. On the following afternoon, the same programme was played at Symphony Hall in Boston, with a further repeat of the concert on the evening of 14 January.

The local press reported an enthusiastic reception at both venues. At Harvard: “A long line of ticket-buyers trailed across the lobby; from the gallery above the stage, where they received places, an amusing rank of young heads and shoulders craned over the rail; for now a conductor-composer was to be seen as well as heard. A wreath of green, set with dark red roses, hung upon his music-stand. Dignitaries of the University – save only the President – filled the central seats of the elect. Upon the benches elsewhere not a sitting was empty. The orchestra … and the audience rose in salutation when Monsieur Ravel came first to the podium; applauded him warmly after each number; at the close of the concert held him fast through round after round of clapping. For the first time he then called the band to its feet; with outspread arms returned his own thanks for its mingled finesse and valiance. It is Monsieur Ravel’s habit to quit the stage at the end of each piece. ‘Recalls’ were as numerous as at a ‘first night’ from a discriminating audience in the theater.” (H.T Parker, Boston Evening Transcript, 13 January 1928, p.16**).

In Boston: “When Mr Ravel came on the platform the orchestra rose from the seats, so did the great audience, though timidly, hesitatingly, at first. This audience was enthusiastic throughout the concert; not merely out of courtesy to a distinguished stranger, whose orchestral music has been appreciated here for 14 years. The enthusiasm was provoked by the music itself and the sight of the composer conducting the superb orchestra.” (Philip Hall, Boston Herald, 14 January 1928, p.24**).

There was much interest in Ravel’s appearance and in his manner as a performer, though it was recognised that he appeared primarily as a composer rather than a professional conductor. “As an orchestral leader, M. Ravel knows how to get the effects he wants with a minimum of effort and with nothing remotely resembling ostentation. …His own interpretation of the various scores served to emphasize anew the virtues of his music – its transparency, the economy of means employed, its wit and irony, the effective adaptation of means to ends, the musical sensitiveness and regard for pure beauty that permeates his writing.” (Jeannette Cox, Musical Courier, 19 January 1928, p.39**).

Ravel made one further visit to Boston on 2 April. His purpose is not recorded. (Orenstein [1989] letter 298).

(** as quoted in Dunfee [1980] pp.73-78.)