Composer of the Week: Maurice Ravel

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Dandy

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Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Dandy

Donald Macleod looks at Ravel’s relationship with Paris, where image means everything.

Donald Macleod drops five pins on the map of Ravel’s life story. Today, young Ravel uses creative and sartorial tactics to get noticed in Parisian musical society.

Donald Macleod looks at Ravel’s relationship with Paris, where image means everything.

Maurice Ravel is one of France’s most enigmatic, original and beloved composers. While less prolific than some of his contemporaries, Ravel was a master of detail - his works are elegant and exquisitely crafted, and precision was a guiding force in both his creativity and personality. He is often linked with impressionism for his painterly approach to orchestration and vivid sound worlds of his piano writing, but his distinctive voice bears influences from the baroque, to the exotic, to jazz. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod drops five pins on the map of Ravel’s life story, discovering the places that were important to him and what they reveal about his character.

Today, Ravel’s youthful escapades and many addresses in Paris, a city which he loved but didn’t always love him back. We’ll join the aspiring composer as he tries to make his mark on the exclusive salon circuit, spends too many hours in front of the mirror, forms a secret society, and becomes the centre of a musical scandal. 


D’Anne jouant de l’espinette 
Anne Sofie von Otter, soprano
Bengt Forsberg, piano

Jeux d’eau 
Martha Argerich, piano

String Quartet (1st and 2nd movements)
Quatuor Ebène

Miroirs (III. Une barque sur l‘océan; V. Vallée des cloches)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet
Skaila Kanga, harp
Philippa Davies, flute
Michael Collins, clarinet
Nash Ensemble


Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

Composer of the Week: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod looks at five key locations to the character of this enigmatic composer.

This week, Donald Macleod drops five pins on the map of Ravel's life story, discovering the places that were important to him and what they reveal about his character.

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