Maurice Ravel was born in a little town in the south of France, two miles from the Spanish border, and was brought to Paris at an early age. His mother came from the Basque region of Spain, and many of his compositions have exotic Spanish resonances — Boléro, most famously; also Habanera, The Spanish Hour, and others.

Ravel spent no fewer than sixteen lackluster years at the Paris Conservatory, the gateway to French musical life in those days, while his older contemporary Claude Debussy emerged as a leader in the music of modernism. When Debussy died in 1918, Ravel was acknowledged as the leading composer of war-ravaged France. Ravel hated Germany and German music, and he was young enough to volunteer for military service against the Germans in World War I, despite his frail body and retiring personality.

From the time of his first major success, with the impressionistic piano piece Jeux d’eau (Fountains; 1901), it was clear Ravel had an amazing ear for sonority, and the magical sound of his music for piano or orchestra is unmatched. He was the most meticulous and exquisite of composers, and his aim was for clarity above all. Some of his most famous compositions make use of classical forms, such as the Sonatine for Piano and the Piano Concerto in G.

Ravel never married, seems to have had no close relationships, and lived an uneventful life at his home in Paris. His one big trip, in 1928, was to America; here he met George Gershwin (and Charlie Chaplin) and came back with a small fortune. In 1932, Ravel contracted a rare brain disease; among other symptoms, it rendered him unable to write down the music in his head. He died five years later. The Piano Concerto in G of 1931 was his last work but one.

Chief Works: Orchestral works: Mother Goose Suite, La Valse, the ballet scores Boléro and Daphnis and Chloé ◼ One-act operas: L’Heure espagnole (The Spanish Hour) and L’Enfant et les sortilèges (The Child Bewitched), a delightful childhood fantasy ◼ Piano concertos; Gaspard de la nuit, one of the hardest pieces ever written for piano; Jeux d’eau; and a charming piano Sonatine ◼ Songs; a string quartet ◼ Many arrangements for orchestra, including Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (see page 284)

Encore: After the first movement of the Piano Concerto in G, listen to the second movement; Boléro; Sonatine for Piano.

Image credit: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France/Trela/The Bridgeman Art Library.