Jelly Arányi is one of the best known representatives of the 20th century Hungarian school of violin playing exemplified by Jenő Hubay. It was not only Hubay’s teachings that she spread around the world, as she also served as a conduit for the intellectual legacy of her uncle, the renowned Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. Attesting to her talent, skill and receptiveness to new music is the fact that numerous contemporary composers wrote works specifically for her: Béla Bartók, for instance, dedicated both of his sonatas for violin and piano to her. After hearing Arányi play at a London concert in 1922, Maurice Ravel asked her to play virtuoso Gypsy tunes for him. This experience led him to compose his 1924 concert rhapsody Tzigane, which Arányi premièred that same year in collaboration with the pianist Henri Gil-Marchex. Ravel had originally scored the work for violin and an instrument called luthéal (invented by a Belgian instrument-maker in 1919, the luthéal is similar to a piano, but much more resonant and therefore evocative of the sound of the cimbalom), but after this experiment revised it for piano and eventually for a full orchestra.