One Thousand and One Nights

Maurice Ravel: Shéhérazade, overture and song cycle

In the late 19th century, French art music began to adopt influences from exotic far-off lands such as East Asia and the Middle East. Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) wrote a number of works inspired by far-away cultures and landscapes. The Arabian Nights story collection prompted him to write his first orchestral work, the concert overture Shéhérazade (1898). This was poorly received at its premiere in Paris in spring 1899; critics panned Ravel for simply imitating others. While the influence of Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov is discernible, the score is of a high technical quality and evokes a captivating fairy-tale atmosphere. Ravel nevertheless withdrew the work, and it was not published until 1975.

A few years later, Ravel wrote another work with the same title. This Shéhérazade (1903) is a song cycle for soprano and orchestra setting poems by Tristan Klingsor, the pen name of Léon Leclère. He, like Ravel, was a member of the Apaches, an artist group that favoured new ideas and approaches.

The song cycle was premiered in Paris in spring 1904 by soprano Jeanne Hatto, conducted by Alfred Cortot, who is better known as a pianist. Ravel’s idiom had evolved into something quite a bit more original since the ill-fated overture, and critics received this new work favourably. The work comprises three songs: ‘Asie’ is a catalogue of the wonders of the Far East; ‘La flute enchantée’ is sensitive and ecstatic in turn; and the concluding ‘L’indifférent’ evokes the possibility of an erotic encounter. 

Ahmet Adnan Saygun: Symphony no. 1 op. 29

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907–1991) studied with Vincent d’Indy in Paris. He returned to his native Türkiye in 1931 and created a career advancing cultural activities as a teacher, musicologist and conductor. He was in favour of westernising Türkiye and supported the reforms of President Kemal Atatürk. He and four other composers formed a group known as the Turkish Five.

Saygun’s musical idiom combines Western and Soviet Neo-Classicism with tunes and modes from Turkish folk music. His stylistic influences include composers such as Martinů, Shostakovich, Honegger and Bartók, with whom Saygun worked as an assistant when Bartók was collecting folk tunes in Türkiye in 1936.

Saygun’s output includes the oratorio Yunus Emre, operas, concertos, four string quartets and choral works. His music was internationally quite well known in its day, being performed by distinguished artists such as conductor Leopold Stokowski.

Saygun wrote five symphonies. His first was completed in 1953 and is dedicated to Austrian conductor Franz Litschauer. The work incorporates themes from Saygun’s String Quartet no. 1 (1947) but with a broader and more symphonic treatment. There are four movements: ‘Allegro’, ‘Adagio’, ‘Allegretto’ and ‘Allegro assai’. 

Maurice Ravel: Boléro

The most famous composition of Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) by a wide margin is the Boléro. Dancer Ida Rubinstein once asked Ravel to orchestrate a couple of piano pieces by Isaac Albéniz for a ballet performance. Ravel began working on the project, only to discover that orchestral versions of the pieces already existed and his contribution was not needed after all. This did not upset him, however, as he had already begun to think of writing a Spanish-themed piece of his own.

The Boléro was premiered at the Paris Opera on 22 November 1928 with a choreography by Bronislava Nizhinska and staging by Alexander Benois. The orchestra of the Opera was conducted by Walther Straram. The performance caused a sensation, and Boléro went on to become one of the most frequently performed works in the Western orchestral repertoire. Ravel was quite astonished by its huge success, since he regarded it as a throwaway experiment.

The Boléro is a single crescendo of grand proportions: the music begins extremely quietly and gains force as more instruments join in. The incessant side drum rhythm keeps the energy going.

The piece relies on the compelling power of repetition: at some point, the listener is inevitably drawn in to follow the progress of the music with the intensity of watching a thriller. The most spectacular moment in the piece comes near the end, when after more than 10 minutes in C major the music shifts without warning to E major.