Ravel in Detroit

Ravel continued his circuit of northern cities of the United States with a visit to Detroit on 28 March 1928 to give a recital in the large hall of the Institute of Arts. He was joined by the harpist Djina Ostrowska, instrumentalists from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the soprano Lisa Roma (in what proved to be the last of her long series of performances with Ravel: illness obliged her to cancel her remaining engagements with him (Dunfee [1980] p.22)).

The music critic of the Detroit News who reported on the performance judged that the city's concert-goers, while appreciative of Ravel's individuality, were perhaps slightly baffled by the exposure to a whole programme of his music. "It is, however, logical and absorbing and often exquisite. Sometimes, but not frequently, it is beautiful. It is never impassioned, its occasional mirth is acrid rather than hearty. It expresses but few emotions directly, for it eliminates emotional detail. Such is the modernism of Ravel and in that degree it is important and prophetic."

The audience was most comfortable with the final item in the programme, the Introduction & allegro which showed Ravel in his most familiar style. They were "uncommonly responsive, and showed so much enthusiasm at the end that the Allegro was repeated". (Detroit News, 29 March 1928, p.16, quoted in Dunfee [1980] p.98-99).

www.maurice-ravel.net