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Ravel

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Maurice Ravel was among the most significant and influential composers of the early 20th century.Spotify

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.Spotify

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.Spotify

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).Spotify

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.Spotify

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.Spotify

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.Spotify

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.Spotify

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.Spotify

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).Spotify

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.Spotify

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Study resources & scores

Curated study material and indexed score links related to Ravel.

Lecture 21. Musical Impressionism and Exoticism: Debussy, Ravel and Monet

Yale (YouTube) · lecture · youtube, transcript

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Local matches

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France Musique · published 2026-05-28

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Qui êtes-vous Ricardo Viñes ?

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Sandrine Piau et David Kadouch en récital de lieder et mélodies à Londres

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France Musique · published 2026-05-19

Gaspard Dehaene : "Souvent la musique me prend comme un océan"

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France Musique · published 2026-05-19

La Matinale avec Gaspard Dehaene, un air de famille

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France Musique · published 2026-05-17

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France Musique · published 2026-05-13

L'Orchestre de Paris dirigé par Bar Avni joue Milhaud, Chausson, Ravel avec la violoniste Ava Bahari

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-05-13

Leonard Bernstein et l'Orchestre national de France : Berlioz, Ravel, Franck et Saint-Saëns

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-05-11

Claire Denis : « J’aime le rock n’roll, Ravel, Debussy et Stockhausen, entre autres »

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France Musique · published 2026-05-11

Javier Perianes, puissance expressive et sens des nuances

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France Musique · published 2026-05-09

France Musique est à vous junior du samedi 09 mai 2026

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France Musique · published 2026-05-08

Les grands disques de Leonard Bernstein à la baguette

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France Musique · published 2026-05-04

Manu Sinistra - Illia Ovcharenko, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Oksana Lyniv

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France Musique · published 2026-05-04

Une semaine avec Pascal Rogé

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-05-01

Adams et Ravel à Londres avec Víkingur Ólafsson et Esa-Pekka Salonen

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-04-24

Iván Fischer et l’Orchestre du Festival de Budapest. Le XXème siècle de Kodaly à Bartók

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France Musique · published 2026-04-14

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France Musique · published 2026-04-10

Ravel, Debussy et l'Enfance

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Quelle musique entendez-vous sur "Un soir de carnaval" d'Henri Rousseau ?

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France Musique · published 2026-04-01

La violoniste Janine Jansen de Schoenberg à Michel van der Aa. Nuit transfigurée, Vie brève et autre Tzigane

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France Musique · published 2026-03-24

La pianiste Yuja Wang et la musique française. Carmen, Danse macabre et Apprenti sorcier...

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France Musique · published 2026-03-24

Lionel Bringuier dirige le Philhar' dans la musique de Dukas, Ravel, Saint-Saëns et Roussel

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-03-23

Régine Crespin chante Ravel et Wagner à Radio France

2026

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Carnegie Hall · published 2026-03-21 · 3m

Hayato Sumino on Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro” | A Story in Every Note

2026A Story in Every Note3m

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France Musique · published 2026-03-21

Le Jardin féérique de Maurice Ravel : l’apothéose du printemps

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-03-20

Mars à Paris

2026

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France Musique · published 2026-03-19

Bruce Liu : après la compétition, l’accomplissement

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France Musique · published 2026-03-18

Jean Martinon, Henryk Szeryng et le National en Allemagne

2026

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YouTube · published 2026-02-10 · 1h 13m

Ravel/Monteverdi/Albéniz: AVROTROS VIRTUOOS - Live concert HD

20261h 13m

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