Ravel
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, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, orchestral music, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work ("Kaddish"), which is merely an arrangement of pre-existent Hebrew liturgical melodies. Many of his piano pieces also exist in the form of orchestrations made years after their original conception. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and some of his complex orchestral scores, such as the music for the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912), require great conducting skill to realize successfully.
Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision.
Ravel
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Pari...
ALBÉNIZ Ibéria - El Corpus en Sevilla
BACH Toccata & Fugue in D minor
BACH Two Chorales
BARBER Symphony in One Movement
BEETHOVEN Coriolan Overture
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1
DEBUSSY Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
DEBUSSY Nuages & Fêtes
DOHNÁNYI Suite for Orchestra
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8
GLINKA Ruslan and Ludmila - Overture
HINDEMITH Mathis der Maler Symphony
HUMPERDINCK Hänsel und Gretel - Prelude
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1
RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte
RESPIGHI Ancient Airs and Dances
SCHREKER Der Geburtstag der Infantin
SCRIABIN Symphony No. 3
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5
STAROKADOMSKY Concerto for Orchestra
STRAVINSKY Firebird Suite
J. STRAUSS II Die Fledermaus - Overture
J. STRAUSS II Tales from the Vienna Woods
R. STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra
R. STRAUSS Rosenkavalier Waltzes
R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
VIVALDI Concerto in D minor
WAGNER Die Meistersinger - excerpts
WEBER Oberon - Overture
Broadcast recordings, 1938
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Artur Rodziński
HUMPERDINCK Hänsel und Gretel - Prelude
BACH Two Chorales
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1
VIVALDI Concerto in D minor
SCRIABIN Symphony No. 3
RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte
DEBUSSY Nuages & Fêtes
R. STRAUSS Rosenkavalier Waltzes
Broadcast recordings, 1938
Total duration: 2hr 37:46
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Artur Rodziński
DEBUSSY (arr. Stokowski) La cathédrale engloutie
DEBUSSY Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
DEBUSSY Le martyre de saint Sébastien
DEBUSSY (arr. Stokowski) La soirée dans Grenade
MILHAUD Symphony No. 1, Op. 210
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.2
Live broadcast recordings, 1943/44
Total duration: 79:26
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leopold Stokowski
WAGNER Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
RAVEL Alborada del Gracioso
STRAVINSKY Petrushka Suite
VARIOUS Encores
Recorded in stereo in 1962
Total duration: 79:20
The Philadelphia Orchestra
conductor Leopold Stokowski
STOKOWSKI The Pristine NBC Symphony Series
A 16-CD set featuring music by: Amfitheatrof, Antheil, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Butterworth, Cooley, Copland, Creston, Debussy, Gould, Hanson, Harris, Hindemith, Holst, Hovhaness, Kelly, Lavalle, Milhaud, Mohaupt, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schoenberg, Schuman, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Stringfield, Tchaikovsky, Thomson, Vaughan Williams, Wagner
Anne Brown. soprano
Winifred Heidt. contralto
William Horne. tenor
Lawrence Whisonant. bass
Eduard Steuermann, piano
Collegiate Chorale
The Westminster Choir
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leopold Stokowski
WARLOCK Capriol Suite
PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto
BARTÓK Hungarian Folk Tunes
BARTÓK Romanian Folk Dances
IVES Violin Sonata No. 4
BLOCH Violin Concerto
music by Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud, Lie, Szymanowski, Scriabin, Stravinsky
Studio recordings, 1926-46
Total duration: 2hr 4:59
Joseph Szigeti, violin
Nikita Magaloff, Kurt Ruhrseitz, Béla Bartók, Andor Foldes, piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
Philharmonia Orchestra
conducted by Constant Lambert
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
conducted by Charles Munch
GLUCK Airs de Ballet
SAINT-SAËNS Ballet Divertissement from Henry VIII
RAVEL Mother Goose – Suite
Music by Bach, Fauré, Moszkowski, Pierné, Beethoven
Studio Recordings · 1927 and 1930
Total duration: 71:54
Walter Damrosch, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra
New York Symphony Orchestra