Joseph Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer born in Ciboure, Basque Country, and trained at the Paris Conservatoire. Though frequently grouped with the Impressionists alongside Debussy, Ravel rejected easy classification, developing a meticulous, clarity-driven style incorporating elements of Baroque form, neoclassicism, and, in his later works, American jazz. A slow and exacting craftsman, he produced a relatively small but highly polished body of work spanning orchestral, piano, chamber, and vocal music, including the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912), the String Quartet in F major (1902–03), two piano concertos, and his celebrated 1928 orchestral work Boléro.

Regarded as one of the greatest orchestrators in music history — exemplified by his famous 1922 orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition — Ravel stands alongside Debussy as a defining figure of early 20th-century French music, and his harmonic innovation and textural brilliance continue to influence composers and film scorers today.

Compare recordings piece by piece — 27 works of Maurice Ravel with more than one performance on the site →

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel