By Hugh Robertson

On 7 March 2025 the music world celebrates the 150th birthday of composer, pianist and conductor Maurice Ravel.

We are joining in the festivities in Sydney, performing some of his best-loved works from his largest work (Daphnis and Chloé) to an entire concert of his solo piano pieces, and lots more in between.

But who is Maurice Ravel, and why is he considered one of the great composers?

FRENCH, BUT ALSO SPANISH

Ravel was born in 1875 in the town of Ciboure, France, less than 20 kilometres from the Spanish border and a region culturally dominated by the Basque people. He won admission to the Paris Conservatoire at 14 and became the inheritor of a long French musical tradition, but he never forgot his Basque roots, and that influence colours much of his music, leading to a unique and incomparable sound.

Ravel once wrote, ‘a good composer must borrow from others and then create something new and unique’ – and there is no doubt he did exactly that.

A PERFECTIONIST

Ravel’s father was an inventor and watchmaker, and many see that influence in the precision of his music. In his 1987 biography of the composer, Burnett James described Ravel at the age of 20 as ‘self-possessed, a little aloof, intellectually biased, given to mild banter.’

Ravel was also incredibly critical of his own works. ‘Ravel wants to write perfections. That’s why he erased and actually burned any pieces that he didn’t think were perfect,’ says pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, who will perform an all-Ravel concert in October. ‘We only have perfect pieces from him – the proof is that almost his entire output is played in concerts today. And you cannot say that about many composers.’

Despite this meticulousness, Ravel wasn’t afraid to lean into the emotional power of music. ‘Music is the language of the soul,’ he said. ‘It can express what words fail to convey.’

A PAINTER IN SOUND

Along with Claude Debussy, Ravel is considered one of the great Impressionist composers. Although both composers rejected the term, there is no denying that, like the great Impressionist painters, their music focuses on mood and atmosphere, and in using all the instruments of the orchestra to create an extraordinary range of sounds and tones.

In July, Spanish conductor Jaime Martín leads a concert full of vivid evocations of his homeland by Ravel and Manuel de Falla. When asked what he loves about Ravel, he replies simply: ‘Everything’.

‘I think it is so important for orchestras to play his music as often [as possible] just to explore how you can combine colours. You can hear in Ravel how it is exactly the same process as combining colours for a painter: you put a bit of red, a bit of yellow and put it together and you have a different sound. It’s such a masterful way of combining a trumpet with a piccolo, or something, that happens in Bolero, for instance. He is absolutely unique.

‘Or he creates new instruments with his imagination. It’s like he says, “Okay, these are the instruments we have in the orchestra, let’s invent many more instruments out of those combinations.” I find that so fascinating.’