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Background:

• Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) 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, where 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. He liked to experiment with musical form. Ravel’s three best known works are listed below.
• Gaspard de la nuit (1908) is a three-movements difficult and dark suit for solo piano based on spooky, magical poems by Aloysius Bertrand. The movements are: Ondine 9a water sprite), Le Gibet (a hanging gallows in the desert), and Scarbo (a mischievous goblin). The final part is famous for being one of the hardest piano pieces ever written.
• Daphnis et Chloe (1912) is a full-length ballet score called a choreographic symphony. It is about an ancient Greek love story between a shepherd and a shepherdess. It features lush, rich harmonies and includes a wordless choir that sings smooth, magical vocal sounds in the background.
• Bolero (1928) is a famous orchestral piece written for ballet. It repeats a single, catchy melody over and over again, with the music using different instruments to change the colour of the tune, starting very softly and getting louder and bigger until the grand finale.

Recordings:

• Shadows of My Ancestors: Prokofiev, Ravel, Saidaminova.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Behzod Abduraimov (piano).
  Alpha.
  BBC Music Magazine (2024): Instrumental Choice
  Gramophone Magazine (2024): Recording of the Month.
  Gramophone Magazine (2024): Critics’ Choice.
  Gramophone Awards (2024): Shortlist Piano.
  International Classical Music Awards (2024): Nominated Solo Instrument.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2024).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2024): Finalist.

• Gaspard de la nuit, Pavane pour une Infante Defunte, Valses nobles et sentimentales.
  Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano).
  Decca.
  Grammy Awards (1985): Best Classical Instrumental Solo Recording.

• Ravel: Complete Works for Solo Piano.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
  Chandos.
  BBC Music Magazine (2025): Instrumental Choice.
  Gramophone Magazine (2025): Editor’s Choice.
  Gramophone Awards (2025): Shortlist Piano.

• Pierre Boulez Conducts Ravel.
  Daphnis et Cjloe, Bolero.
  Camerata Singers.
  New York Philharmonic.
  Pierre Boulez.
  Sony.
  Grammy Awards (1975): Best Engineered Album Classical.
  Grammy Awards (1975): Best Orchestral Performance.
  Grammy Awards (1984): Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

• Ravel Fragments.
  Daphnis et Chloe, Gaspard de la nuit.
  Bertrand Chamayou (piano).
  Erato.
  BBC Music Magazine (2025): Instrumental Choice.
  BBC Music Magazine Awards (2026): Shortlisted Instrumental.

• Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Seong-Jin Cho.
  Deutsche Grammophon.
  Opus Klassik Awards (2025): instrumentalist of the Year.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2025).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2025): Finalist.

• Complete Piano & Orchestral Works.
  Bolero, Gaspard de la nuit, Daphnis et Chloe.
  Andre Cluytens (piano).
  Samson Francois.
  Erato.

• Intrigues of the Darkness: Scriabin, Ravel, De Falla, Mussorgsky.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Anna Fedorova (piano).
  Channel Classics.

• Chopin, Liszt, Ravel.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Benajamin Grosvenor (piano).
  Decca.
  BBC Music Magazine (2011): Instrumental Choice.
  Gramophone Magazine (2011): Editor’s Choice.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2011).
  BBC Music Magazine Awards (2012): Finalist Instrumental.
  Gramophone Awards (2012): Winner Instrumental.

• Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music.
  Gaspard de la nuit.
  Steven Osborne (piano).
  Hyperion.
  BBC Music Magazine (2011): Disc of the Month.
  Gramophone Awards (2011): Finalist Instrumental.
  BBC Music Magazine Awards (2012): Finalsit Instrumental.

• Daphnis et Chloe.
  Tenebrae.
  London Symphony Orchestra.
  Sir Antonio Pappano.
  LSO.
  Gramophone Magazine (2025): Editor’s Choice.

• Ravel: The Complete Works with Piano.
  Francois-Xavier Poizat (piano).
  Aparte.
  Gramophone Magazine (2024): recording of the Month.

• Daphnis & Chloe. Complete Ballet.
  Marion Ralincourt (flute).
  Les Siecles & Ensemble Aedes.
  Francois-Xavier Roth.
  Harmonia Mundi.
  Gramophone Magazine (2017): Editor’s Choice.
  Presto Editor’s Choice (2017).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2017): Finalist.
  Gramophone Awards (2018): Winner Orchestral.
  Radio 3 Building a Library (2022): Recommended.

• L’Heure espagnole, Bolero.
  Isabelle Druet, Julien Behr, Loïc Félix, Thomas Dolié, Jean Teitgen.
  Les Siecles.
  Francois-Xavier Roth.
  Harmonia Mundi.
  Gramophone Magazine (2023): Editor’s Choice.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2023).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2023): Finalist.
  International Classical Music Awards (2024): Winner Assorted Programs.

• Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Alan Hovhaness Meditation on Orpheus.
  Scott Goff (flute).
  Seattle Symphony Chorale.
  Seattle Symphony.
  Gerard Schwarz.
  Naxos.

• Daphnis et Chloe. Complete Ballet.
  Sinfonia of London Chorus.
  Sinfonia of London.
  John Wilson.
  Chandos.
  Gramophone Magazine (2023): Editor’s Choice.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2023).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2023): Finalist.
  Gramophone Awards (2024): Finalist Orchrestral.

• Ma Mere l”oye, Bolero.
  Sinfonia of London.
  John Wilson.
  Chandos.
  Gramophone Magazine (2022): Editor’s Choice.
  Gramophone Magazine (2022): Critics’ Choice.
  Gramophone Awards (2022): Winner Spatial Audio.
  Presto Recording of the Week (2022).
  Presto Recordings of the Year (2022): Finalist

About Coram Deo

Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.