Gypsy - Violin and piano
Maurice Ravel

"Piece of virtuosity in the taste of a Hungarian rhapsody" - this is how Ravel describes "Gypsy" in his "Autobiographical sketch". This work, composed in 1924, exists in three versions: with piano, with orchestra and with luthéal, a device for keyboard instruments intended to widen their sound spectrum. It was Jelly d'Aranyi, an Anglo-Hungarian violinist, who was at the origin of the composition of "Gypsy" and to whom Ravel had already promised in 1922 a virtuoso piece in line with "Hungarian Rhapsodies" by Franz Liszt . Ravel advanced so slowly that she did not receive the score until four days before the creation, which did not prevent her from executing the work bravely.