Boléro

Programme notes

Composed for local star Amalia Hall, Michael Norris’s Sufi-inspired concerto ‘tries to capture the sense of two vast realms – the earth and the sky – with the dancers whirling ecstatically between them’.

It is framed by some stunning French music. Debussy’s painting of the blossoming of nature, and two contrasting works by Fauré, the jolly Masques et bergamasques and the wistful Sicilienne.

Then, endlessly repeated rhythm, sinuously feline melody, imperceptible but implacable crescendo: it can only be Ravel’s Boléro.