The circle of artists known as the Apaches frequently met at the home of Ida and Cipa Godebski. Ravel enjoyed a special rapport with children, and, being an eccentric, tended to flee the company of the adults and instead visit the room of the Godebskis' young son and daughter, Jean and Mimie. There he told stories to the siblings. These stories soon inspired the composer to write a series of piano duets, which he later turning into ballet music and an orchestral suite entitled Mother Goose. Although the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm in World War I, he did not give up his vocation. He commissioned pieces for the left hand from the top composers of the time, including Ravel. Composed for the left hand but sounding like any piano piece for both hands, the Piano Concerto in D major consists of a single movement that can be segmented into several parts. Full of jazzy elements, it is nevertheless characterised by gloominess and tragic overtones. After the interval, the orchestra will perform Saint-Saëns's last symphony. "I gave everything I was able to give to it. What I have accomplished here, I will never achieve again,” wrote the composer after the 1886 London première of the work. Saint-Saëns used the thematic transformation technique familiar from the music of Liszt and Berlioz; that is, he applied his motto resembling the Dies irae motif in different forms throughout the two movements (four parts) of the composition. Saint-Saëns dedicated the symphony, supplemented with both a piano and an organ, to the memory of Liszt.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra