Number 9: Ravel

Ravel composed the first piece of classical music that really floored me. As a teenager my main musical love was jazz, and although I found classical music pleasant it didn't really grab me in the same way as Miles Davis or Thelonious Sphere Monk did. I was then taken in by a trojan horse, a track on a cd of Gershwin music produced by Herbie Hancock. Hidden amongst the modern takes on Gershwin's oeuvre were a few recordings of classical pieces that had influenced Gershwin. One of these pieces was Maurice Ravel's piano concerto in G, composed 1929-1931, near the end of Ravel's life. The whole concerto was deeply soaked in jazz, an art form that had recently gone huge in Paris as well as America. In Ravel's hands, these early jazz licks took on the most extraordinary poignancy, with the slow middle movement positively breathtaking. This was music!
Do yourself a favor and spend nine minutes with this Adagio, here in a recording conducted by zen master Celibidache and performed by a reserved Michelangeli.  The moment when the orchestra first joins in (about three minutes in) is about as beautiful as music gets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftJ-gJ-l5HQ

Perhaps the most well known piece Ravel composed is one that he later expressed some embarrassment over: Bolero. Originally composed to accompany a dance performance, it has become standard to hear it performed by itself, a throbbing tutorial in the art of orchestration. The work has become ubiquitous and crops up everywhere. Here, for instance, it accompanies a gold-medal winning Olympic ice-dancing routine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98

Ravel also composed brilliant chamber music and solo piano works. His piano trio, composed in 1914, is gorgeous. The main themes are built around simple pentatonic lines that when combined create hauntingly evocative harmonies. The piece clearly shows the link between Ravel and Debussy, the preceding French "impressionist" composer, but there is a deep sadness that is pure Ravel. Here is the third movement played by the Beaux Arts Trio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJF55j5WnY&feature=related

His piano suite Gaspard de la nuit is often referred to as the most difficult piece of piano music ever written. Martha Argerich--perhaps the greatest living pianist--has mastered the work; here she plays the last of three movements, Scarbo, in which the music conjures up the writhings of some ghoulish figure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlFT1QGgu6Q

Ravel is also the greatest orchestrator of all time. The amount of tones he can draw out of a full symphony orchestra, or for that matter nearly any combination of instruments, is unrivaled. His symphonic orchestration of Modest Mussourgsky's piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" is probably (although sadly, in my view, as the piano work is neglected despite its genius) more well known than the original work. But his most triumphant showpiece has to be the ballet Daphnes et Chloe (1909-1912). Listen to all the colors (an awkward term, of course, these are sounds not colors) that explode out of just this three minute segment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMck8f0UH5w

Ravel: Number 9