Composed 1905; 11 minutes

As a student, at the Paris Conservatoire studying under Fauré, French composer Maurice Ravel had for a fifth time failed to win the coveted Prix de Rome despite a rapidly rising reputation as a young composer to watch. Ravel’s social circle happened to include the former owner of the French daily newspaper Le matin. The affaire Ravel soon became a front-page story. The young, already published composer in the spotlight was quickly offered a commission by Albert Blondel, director of Érard, the harp and piano manufacturer. This was to be his company’s ‘double-action’ response to the Debussy ‘chromatic’ commission from Pleyel. 

Ravel immediately seized the opportunity to exploit the color and sonority of the harp, its multiple stops, harmonics, register changes, extremes of register, not to mention its potential as a virtuoso soloist amongst a chamber group of instruments. The result was a masterpiece, a mainstay of the harp repertoire, completed after what he described as “a week of frantic work and three sleepless nights.” Structurally, the Introduction and Allegro bears close resemblance to a concerto opening movement, with three related and intensely evocative themes leading to a dramatic harp cadenza, before the three themes are revisited a second time in the recapitulation. The music is exquisitely shaped and crafted and perfectly proportioned. The first public performance was given in Paris on February 22, 1907, with Micheline Kahn as harpist.