An apotheosis of dance from Gigues, Bolero, Rondes de Printemps and Jota surrounds the 1st Piano Concerto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky this evening. French conductor Pierre Bleuse brings a colourful potpourri of orchestral music from French elegance and Spanish passion to Basel with his debut with the Sinfonieorchester Basel. Manuel de Falla composed his The Three-Cornered Hat in 1919 for the London-based Ballets Russes. The use of Spanish rhythms and instrumental colours brings the work close to Debussy's Images pour orchestre and Ravel's Boléro. Ravel remarked about his most successful work to fellow composer Arthur Honegger: "I have made only one masterpiece, that is the Boléro; unfortunately it contains no music." He is not entirely wrong: a single rhythmic model in 15 minutes - repeated 169 times. The ecstatic force that emerges from this is unique.