This new biography of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), by one of the leading scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French music, is based on a wealth of written and oral evidence, some newly translated and some derived from interviews with the composer's friends and associates. As well as describing the circumstances in which Ravel composed, the book explores new evidence to present radical views of the composer's background and upbringing, his notorious failure in the Prix de Rome, his incisive and often combative character, his sexual preferences, and his long final illness. It also contains the most detailed account so far published of his hugely successful American tour of 1928. The world of Maurice Ravel - including friendships (and some fallings-out) with Debussy, Faure, Diaghilev, Gershwin, and Toscanini - is deftly uncovered in this sensitive portrait.
- ISBN10 0460031465
- ISBN13 9780460031462
- Publish Date 1 March 1977
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 July 2000
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Everyman Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 212
- Language English