When’s the last time you heard “Bolero”? A recording? As a backdrop for a commercial? A musical score for a movie?

Any chance you heard it played by a full orchestra in a big concert hall?

If you’re lucky, it was the latter, and it probably stands out in memory for the sheer power and pageantry of Maurice Ravel’s monster masterpiece.

If you have or haven’t heard a live performance of “Bolero,” this weekend is a rare chance to hear it live. The San Juan Symphony will perform it as a finale to its season opener first on Saturday night at the Henderson Performance Hall in Farmington. On Sunday afternoon, the orchestra will repeat the program in Durango’s Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.

“We’re back to a new normal,” Music Director Thomas Heuser said of the orchestra’s 37th season. The theme overall is “Connect with the Pulse,” and “Bolero!” is fittingly the title of the first concert. Everything on the program points toward Ravel’s work, and it promises to be a rousing finish.

“The orchestra is the star of the show,” Heuser said. “We’re playing an all-French program, and Maurice Ravel is the real star of the show. Ravel called for a massive orchestra. ‘Bolero’ is known for its driving pulse and its great, long crescendo. There’s no development, but people love it. And today’s audiences rarely get to hear the music live.

“Ravel once said he ‘only wrote one famous piece of music; too bad there’s no music in it.’”

Ravel’s orchestration calls for upwards of 70 musicians, Heuser said: “It’s a bear to perform, but the music is heavenly.”

When Heuser and his team decided to program the first season after the pandemic, “Bolero” was a prime choice. Other composers and other works spun out of that decision, for example, Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.”

“The orchestra may be the star of the show for Debussy, too. But like ‘Bolero,’ there will be a lot of soloistic work,” Heuser said. “You’ll hear our wonderful flutist, Shelley Mann, for example, and many other musicians shine in solo parts.”

Beyond Ravel and Debussy’s famous works, there will be music from the same rich French Impressionist tradition, Heuser said.

If you go

WHAT: “Bolero! French Impressions,” San Juan Symphony, Music Director Thomas Heuser, works by Ravel, Satie, Debussy, Honegger and Boulanger.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Henderson Performance Hall, Farmington, and Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, Durango.

TICKETS: Concert Hall single tickets range from $20 for students to $63 adults. Season tickets: Students $76 to adults $230. Discounts available for first-time buyers.

MORE INFORMATION: Call 247-7567 or visit www.durangoconcerts.com.

“For example, you’ll hear the first performance here of Lili Boulanger’s dynamic and brilliant ‘On A Spring Morning.’ That will be followed by Eric Satie’s ‘Gymnopedie,’” he said. “Debussy knew Satie, a salon pianist, and wanted his music to have a greater audience. So, Debussy arranged Satie’s works for orchestra. Satie’s music is so simple, almost minimal, almost abstract. Debussy didn’t like the term Impressionism and preferred ‘symbolic.’”

A surprise for many music lovers will be Arthur Honegger’s “Pacific 231.” It was inspired by a steam locomotive, Heuser said, first as it idles at the gate, then turns the power on, revs up, accumulates speed and finally returns to the station.

“It’s a thrill simply to experience this music.”

Music Director Thomas Heuser will continue his popular, 30-minute pre-concert talks one-hour before downbeat in the venue where the orchestra will perform Saturday and Sunday. When last offered in Durango, the talks were given in the plaza seating section of the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Farmington’s Henderson Center has a different plan. Both free for ticket holders, Heuser’s talks focus on the music of the evening.

Musically Speaking is another, slightly longer pre-concert lecture given by Heuser in Durango. At 6 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 5), Heuser will be at the Powerhouse Science Center for his program and will play excerpts of the evening’s music.

Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.