Maurice Ravel

The first movement of Maurice Ravel's Sonatine for piano was probably written in 1903. At any rate the composer played it on 8 January 1904 at a soirée held at the salon of Marguerite de Saint-Marceau...

The sounds made by water - those of fountains, waterfalls and streams - were a popular subject in musical impressionism. Liszt had already explored this in his 'Jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este', and it...

Miroirs' - Ravel dedicated each of these five piano pieces to a member of the Parisian artistic circle 'Les Apaches'. Ravel also belonged to this circle of poets, painters and musicians, giving first...

A collection of prose poems by the French Romantic Aloysius Bertrand inspired Ravel to write his piano cycle 'Gaspard de la nuit'. Unlike earlier works he does not merely create an atmospheric depicti...