Adagio Assai

Notes from the arranger:

Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major was composed between 1929 and 1931. The concerto is in three movements and is heavily influenced by jazz, which Ravel had encountered on a concert tour of the United States in 1928. Is one of the most famous piano concertos, especially the second movement transcribed here. It was widely used in movies.

“The G-major Concerto took two years of work, you know. The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of chiseling then began. We’ve gone past the days when the composer was thought of as being struck by inspiration, feverishly scribbling down his thoughts on a scrap of paper. Writing music is seventy-five percent an intellectual activity.” —Maurice Ravel

“That flowing phrase [at the beginning of the 2nd movement]

! How I worked over it bar by bar! It nearly killed me!” 
—Maurice Ravel