Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel was among the most significant and influential composers of the early 20th century. Although he is frequently linked with Claude Debussy as an exemplar of musical impressionism, and some of their works have a surface resemblance, Ravel possessed an independent voice that grew out of his love of a broad variety of styles, including the French Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Spanish folk traditions, and American jazz and blues. His elegant and lyrically generous body of work was not large in comparison with that of some of his contemporaries, but his compositions are notable for being meticulously and exquisitely crafted. He was especially gifted as an orchestrator, an area in which he remains unsurpassed.
Ravel's mother was of Basque heritage, a fact that accounted for his lifelong fascination with Spanish music, and his father was a Swiss inventor and engineer, most likely the source of his commitment to precision and craftsmanship. At the age of 14, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he was a student from 1889 to 1895 and from 1897 to 1903. His primary composition teacher was Gabriel Fauré. A major disappointment of his life was his failure to win the Prix de Rome in spite of numerous attempts. The difficulty was transparently the conflict between the conservative administration of the Conservatory and Ravel's independent thinking, meaning his association with the French avant-garde (Debussy), and his interest in non-French traditions (Wagner, the Russian nationalists, Balinese gamelan). He had already established himself as a composer of prominence with works such as his String Quartet, and the piano pieces Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jeux d'eau, and the Sonatine, and his loss of the Prix de Rome in 1905 was considered such a scandal that the director of the Conservatory was forced to resign.
Ravel continued to express admiration for Debussy's music throughout his life, but as his own reputation grew stronger during the first decade of the century, a mutual professional jealousy cooled their personal relationship. Around the same time, he developed a friendship with Igor Stravinsky. The two became familiar with each other's work during Stravinsky's time in Paris and worked collaboratively on arrangements for Sergey Diaghilev.
Between 1909 and 1912, Ravel composed Daphnis et Chloé for Diaghilev and Les Ballets Russes. It was the composer's largest and most ambitious work and is widely considered his masterpiece. He wrote a second ballet for Diaghilev, La Valse, which the impresario rejected, but which went on to become one of his most popular orchestral works. Following his service in the First World War as an ambulance driver and the death of his mother in 1917, his output was temporarily diminished. In 1925, the Monte Carlo Opera presented the premiere of another large work, the "lyric fantasy" L'enfant et les sortilèges, a collaboration with writer Colette.
American jazz and blues became increasingly intriguing to the composer. In 1928 he made a hugely successful tour of North America, where he met George Gershwin and had the opportunity to broaden his exposure to jazz. Several of his most important late works, such as the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 and the Piano Concerto in G show the influence of that interest.
Ironically, Ravel, who in his youth was rejected by some elements of the French musical establishment for being a modernist, in his later years was scorned by Satie and the members of Les Six as being old-fashioned, a symbol of the establishment. In 1932, an injury he sustained in an automobile accident started a physical decline that resulted in memory loss and an inability to communicate. He died in 1937, following brain surgery.
In spite of leaving one of the richest and most important bodies of work of any early 20th century composer, one that included virtually every genre except for symphony and liturgical music, Ravel is most often remembered for an arrangement of another composer's work, and for a piece he considered among his least significant. His orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition has been wildly popular with concertgoers (and the royalties from it made Ravel a rich man). Boléro, a 15-minute Spanish dance in which a single theme is repeated in a variety of instrumental guises, has been ridiculed for its insistent repetitiveness, but it is also a popular favorite and one of the most familiar and frequently performed orchestral works of the 20th century.
© Stephen Eddins /TiVo
-
Bolero (pour Piano 4 à mains)
Classical - Released by soundnotation on Jun. 25, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major - Piano Concerto in D Major - Debussy: Fantaisie pour Piano et Orchestre
MIT Symphony Orchestra, Adriano Jordao, Ganka Nedeltcheva
Classical - Released by Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. on Jul. 8, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Never-Before-Published and Rare Live Recordings, Vol. 4
Concertos - Released by Cembal d'amour CD 120 on Jan. 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Complete Works for Violin & Piano
Chamber Music - Released by VDE-GALLO on Jun. 22, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Bolero
Classical - Released by Past Classics on Jul. 26, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Maurice Ravel Plays His Finest Works
Classical - Released by Bringins Music on Mar. 9, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel - Sonata for Violin and Piano
Maurice Ravel, Susanna Yoko Henkel, Milana Chernyavska
Classical - Released by The Spot Records on May 17, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
MIT Symphony Orchestra, Adriano Jordano
Classical - Released by Int - Bertus on Oct. 3, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on Dec. 17, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sonatine - Complete
Classical - Released by Audiofonic Records on May 7, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (Complete)
Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Soundmark Records on Mar. 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Musique classique pour les enfants
Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, Camille Saint-Saëns
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Oct. 1, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Bolero, La Valse, Rhapsodie Espagnol, Daphnis et Chloe, Valses nobles et sentimentales
London Royal Philharmonic, ORF Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Blaricum CD Company (B.C.D.) B.V. on Jan. 13, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Maurice Ravel: Ma Mère L'Oye (Mother Goose Suite) / Claude Debussy: Nocturnes
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Maurice Ravel, Ernest Ansermet
Classical - Released by Music Manager on Mar. 26, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Masters of the Roll - Maurice Ravel
Classical - Released by Blue Pie Records on Jul. 30, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gilels Plays Ravel, Richter and Postnikova Play Liszt
Classical - Released by Pipeline Music on Nov. 29, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Best Ravel
Maurice Ravel, Classical Music: 50 of the Best
Classical - Released by Armasi on Jul. 11, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Maurice Ravel Vol. 5 & 6 / 6
Classical - Released by ISIS on Jun. 23, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Ravel:Piano Concerto In G, Biset: L'Arlienne Suites 1 & 2
The Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra
Symphonic Music - Released by Stradivari Classics on Jan. 1, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo