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Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Born: 7th March 1875, Ciboure, France

Died: 28th December 1937, Paris, France

Nationality: French

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.

Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz.

Further Reading: Ravel

Interview, George Li on Movements

The American pianist discusses his new album Movements, released on Warner last month and featuring Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze, Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales, and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka.

Recording of the Week, Shadows of My Ancestors from Behzod Abduraimov

The Uzbek pianist presents a dazzlingly evocative album of virtuosic piano works by Prokofieff, Ravel, and his compatriot Dilorom Saidaminova.

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