Maurice Ravel: Complete Chronological Catalogue

See this Wikipedia page for a list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, another French impressionism master, melodist and orchestrator of the highest order. The compositions are arranged by the catalogue numbers which were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to their dates of composition.

I compiled a playlist accordingly. Just like the Debussy playlist, it features a dazzling series of pianists: Gieseking, Michelangeli, Argerich, Pogorelich and, my favourite interpreter of Ravel's piano works: Abbey Simon. For Boléro I used Boulez's 1970s recording on Sony. Others may prefer Munch's famous 1956 recording on RCA-Victor Living Stereo, but it sounds too fast to me. According to Ravel, it runs about 17 minutes when played at correct tempo. Boulez brought out the fierce quality in this deceptively straightforward piece, and his timing is almost identical to Ravel's own. In playlists like this, one of my main aims is to offer a list of great recordings of a particular composer, I recommend serious listeners to listen to the full albums, not just the playlists themselves. 

Here's the Spotify playlist: Maurice Ravel: Complete Chronological Catalogue (183 tracks, total time: 13 hours) All tracks are available on Spotify UK and USA. Press Ctrl (CMD)+G to browse in album view. More on Spotify: a new Music and Arts album of historic recordings conducted, supervised or approved by the composer, and a Naxos Classical Explained audiobook on Boléro and Mother Goose.

Over the next few days or weeks I will be posting a series of French composer playlists, and (warning: shameless teaser follows) the last one will be the greatest French composer of all time.

By the way, to help new visitors browsing, I added a drop-down menu for the site. Please take a look, your feedback is much appreciated.

Debussy, Mahler, and Scriabin Played By Themselves

Spotify just added some of the most important piano roll recordings from Pierian Recording Society, including the complete known piano rolls of Debussy, Ravel, and Scriabin. You can find some raving reviews for the Debussy disk here, and detailed informations for the Scriabin and Ravel recording.

Also from this amazing series: piano rolls of Lizst's students plays Liszt, Respighi plays Fountains of Rome, and Granados plays his own works. Recordings from other label in this playlist: a Mahler piano roll recording realised with Mahler's own piano, and Shostakovich plays his piano works, including a piano duet arrangement of his Symphony No.10, recorded in 1954.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Composer as Pianist (144 tracks, 10 hours)