The trombone in Maurice Ravel's Bolero

Fifteen years of experience as first trombonist and about one hundred performances of Boléro place Jean Douay in a position to comment on the subject.

The first trombonist of an orchestra is, in the course of his career, automatically confronted with one of the most difficult solos in the repertoire: Ravel’s Boléro. Conductors do not hesitate to place it on the programme. It is brilliant music which is easily listened to and easily conducted by heart; its success, in short, is assured. It even happens that during a tour it constitutes an encore (cf. Bernstein with the National Orchestra of France).

Analysing its numerous interpretations, one may make the following remarks.

We may first note the time it takes to play it: Pierre Dervaux makes it last 19 minutes, whereas it takes Paul Paray only 14 minutes. Between these two extremes are to be found reasonable durations with conductors like Bernstein, Martinon, Karajan, etc.