Ravel
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) — French composer and the supreme master of orchestration, known for his precision and colouristic brilliance.
In Depth
Ravel's music combines French elegance with extraordinary technical craft. His orchestral works — Boléro, Daphnis et Chloé, La Valse, and his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition — are marvels of instrumental colour. His piano music, including Gaspard de la nuit and the two concertos, pushes the instrument to its expressive limits. Ravel was meticulous — he agonised over every note, sometimes spending months on a single short piece. Stravinsky called him a Swiss watchmaker for the precision of his craftsmanship. Despite this reputation for perfection, his music is deeply emotional — the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Le Tombeau de Couperin (written in memory of friends killed in World War I) are profoundly moving beneath their polished surfaces.
Ravel composed his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in World War I. The concerto is so brilliantly written that many listeners don't realise only one hand is playing.