Maurice Ravel

Bolero - adapted for piano

I came up with the idea to transcribe Boléro for solo piano when I was creating my recital programmes for the 2024-2025 season. 2025 is the 150th anniversary year of of Ravel's birth. It would be a year of many piano recitals across the world with works including Gaspard de la Nuit, Valses nobles et sentimentale, etc. Boléro would be featured less, as the original is written for orchestra. Around the same time, the young, popular Japanese piano star, Hayato Sumino (aka Cateen) had shared a video of his transcription of Boléro, played by him on two pianos. It was sensational, but not practical for a solo pianist without the consistent backing of having multiple pianos on stage. I looked for a simpler transcription for solo piano, but was not convinced by the ones I found. I decided to produce my own, resulting in the current, shortened version (6 mins) for solo piano, where I introduce the simple but very famous tune twice, with the underlying rhythm split between the hands, then a chordal and dense expression of the tune. Rather than bore the pianist and more importantly, the audience, I introduce the coda shortly after. It has been well-received in concerts; effective, but not too difficult to play (I hope). Yuki Negishi London, 2025