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
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Ravel: Boléro in C Major, M. 81 (Digitally Remastered)
Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Veronica Dudarova
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 9 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Menuet Antique
Classical - Released by Audiofonic Records on 14 Oct 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: An Introduction
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 11 Jun 2021
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Jeux: Piano Works By Ravel, Janáček, Sibelius, Rautavaara and Ruiz del Corral - Extended Edition
Irene Cantos, Manuel Ruiz Del Corral, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Maurice Ravel, Jean Sibelius, Leoš Janáček
Classical - Released by Novus Promusica on 23 May 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Shéhérazade
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 30 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Maurice Ravel Plays Ravel
Classical - Released by Legacy International on 24 Nov 2009
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
LCO Live – Ravel | Fauré | Poulenc | Ibert
Classical - Released by Signum Records on 27 Jul 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
French Chamber Music for Woodwinds Volume Two: Ravel & Poulenc
Chamber Music - Released by Signum-Cala on 26 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Legendary Violinist David Nadien, Vol. 4: The Celebrated Live Concerto Performances
Concertos - Released by Cembal d'amour CD 130 on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Classical Moments
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 29 Oct 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Solo Piano Works Volume I
Classical - Released by CRD Records on 1 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Concertos - Released by Past Classics on 13 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel Conducts Ravel
Monique Haas, Maurice Ravel, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre Lamoureux, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
Classical - Released by Profil on 8 Oct 2021
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Ravel: String Quartet in F Major (Digitally Remastered)
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 9 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Duos for Violin and Cello
Classical - Released by Elysium Recordings, Inc. on 14 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An Evening of Classical: Ravel
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 30 Sep 2022
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Ravel: Ma mère l'Oye, M.60: V. Le jardin féerique
Maurice Ravel, Elena Oleynik, Tamas Szigyarto
Classical - Released by BleakLines on 30 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Pièce en forme de Habanera (Digitally Remastered)
Erich Appel, Oliver Colbentson
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 9 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Classical Collection, Famous Classical Evergreens I
Classical - Released by JamadaClassics on 22 Nov 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel, Quartet En Fa Major; Sostakovic, Quartet Núm. 3, Op. 73
Classical - Released by Àudiovisuals de Sarrià on 28 Jun 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bolero (pour Piano 4 à mains)
Classical - Released by soundnotation on 25 Jun 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo