Where to start with Ravel
Essential works to know this composer by — spread across their styles-
StageBoléro — Ballet
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OrchestralLa valse
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KeyboardPavane pour une infante défunte
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VocalShéhérazade — Songs for soprano and orchestra
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ChamberString Quartet in F
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OrchestralPiano Concerto in G
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StageDaphnis et Chloé — Ballet
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KeyboardGaspard de la nuit
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StageL'enfant et les sortilèges
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KeyboardLe tombeau de Couperin
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KeyboardMiroirs
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OrchestralPiano Concerto for the Left Hand
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ChamberViolin Sonata no. 2 in G
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Vocal2 Mélodies hébraïques — Song
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Vocal2 mélodies hébraïques
Listening guide
Hand-curated paths into Ravel's catalogueMost Popular
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Boléro
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Pavane pour une infante défunte
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La Valse
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Daphnis et Chloé (ballet)
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String Quartet in F major
Most Acclaimed
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Gaspard de la nuit
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Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
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Piano Concerto in G major
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String Quartet in F
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Valses nobles et sentimentales
Most Weird
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Piano Concerto for the Left Handwritten for Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm — sounds like two hands throughout
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La ValseViennese waltz growing increasingly hysterical until it collapses — he called it a whirlpool of death
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Valses nobles et sentimentales8 waltzes — some ironic, some disturbing; premiered anonymously so audiences would judge the music not the name
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L’Enfant et les Sortilègesopera — a child\’s furniture and animals come to life and put him on trial
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Histoires naturellessongs — Jules Renard’s animal portraits; harmonically ahead of their time in 1906
Similar composers
Same era, overlapping styles — by genre & period affinityIn your library
| The Complete Solo Piano Works | 2025 | Classical | played 46× |
Works 78
- Stage
- ● Boléro — Ballet
- Daphnis et Chloé — Ballet
- L'enfant et les sortilèges
- Fanfare
- L' heure espagnole — Opera
- Ma mère l'oye — Ballet
- Orchestral
- ● La valse
- ● Piano Concerto in G
- Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
- Alborada del gracioso
- Rhapsodie espagnole
- Shéhérazade
- Tzigane: Concert Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra
- Une barque sur l'océan
- Keyboard
- ● Pavane pour une infante défunte
- Gaspard de la nuit
- Le tombeau de Couperin
- Miroirs
- 8 Valses nobles et sentimentales
- A la manière de...
- Frontispiece, for 2 pianos
- Jeux d'eau
- La parade
- Ma Mère l'Oye, for piano 4-hands
- Menuet antique
- Menuet en ut dièse, for piano
- Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn
- Prélude
- Sites auriculaires, for 2 pianos
- Sonatine
- Sonatine in F sharp minor
- Sérénade grotesque
- Toccata
- Vocal
- Shéhérazade — Songs for soprano and orchestra
- 2 Mélodies hébraïques — Song
- 2 mélodies hébraïques
- 3 Chansons, for a cappella chorus
- Alcyone, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra
- Alyssa, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra
- Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer — Song
- Chanson du rouet — Song
- Chansons madécasses, for soprano, flute, cello, and piano — Song cycle
- Chants populaires, for voice and piano — Song cycle
- Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, for voice and piano — Song cycle
- Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, for voice and orchestra — Song cycle
- Epigrammes de Clément Marot — Song
- Histoires naturelles, for voice and piano — Song cycle
- L'aurore, cantata for tenor, chorus and orchestra
- La nuit, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra
- Les Grands Vents venus d'Outre-mer — Song
- Les bayadères, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra
- Manteau de fleurs — Song
- Matinée de Provence, cantata for voice, chorus and orchestra
- Myrrha, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra
- Mélodies popularies grecques — Songs
- Noël des jouets — Song
- Ronsard à son âme — Song
- Rêves — Song
- Sainte — Song
- Si morne! — Song
- Sur l'herbe — Song
- Tout est lumière, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra
- Trios Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, for voice and chamber ensemble — Song cycle
- Tripatos — Song
- Trois chansons, for voice and piano — Song cycle
- Un grand sommeil noir — Song
- Vocalise: Étude en forme de habanera — Song
- Chamber
- String Quartet in F
- Violin Sonata no. 2 in G
- Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré, for violin and piano
- Cello Sonata
- Introduction et Allegro, for flute, harp, clarinet, and string quartet
- Kaddish, for violin and piano
- Piano Trio in A minor
- Pièce en forme de Habanera, for violin and piano
- Sonata for Violin and Cello
- Tzigane: Rhapsodie de concert, for violin and piano
- Violin Sonata no. 1 in A minor, "Posthumous"