Piano Concerto in G major

For a long time Ravel loathed the concerto genre, as we learn from his friend Léon-Paul Fargue (Refuges, 1942). Towards the end of his life he did, however, compose two piano concertos: the single-movement Concerto in D major for the left hand, and the three-movement Concerto in G major. He began work on both in 1929. The second one (completed in 1931), apparently more classical in style, is modelled on the concertos of Mozart, Saint-Saëns and on Liszt's First Piano Concerto. The Concerto in G adopts the usual fast-slow-fast scheme and a pre-established structure for each of the three movements (including sonata form for the first). Is it then a solar work, while the Concerto for the left hand reveals Janus’s dark side? Not quite, for its cheerful transparency is peppered with stridencies and raging rhythms (Allegramente), its tender poetry shows hints of deep melancholy (Adagio assai), and the Presto is dazzling in its verve. Ravel had intended to be the soloist in the first public performance of this work, but fatigue and declining health put paid to that ambition and he offered the première to Marguerite Long, to whom the work is dedicated. She gave the first performance on 14 January 1932 at the Salle Pleyel, as part of a Ravel festival, with the Orchestre Lamoureux conducted by the composer.