Programme NotesGerald Larner Archive

ComposersMaurice Ravel › Programme note

an entertainment in words and music

by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Programme note
~100 words · 124 words

Ravel Unravelled

an entertainment in words and music

“I knew Ravel well and not at all. To tell the truth, a Ravel exists whom no one knew. He is Ravel, and even Ravel doesn’t know who Ravel is.” (Nadia Boulanger)

Gerald Larner, Times critic and author of an authoritative biography of the composer, believes that the Ravel unknown even to Ravel is to be found in his music. In conversation with Lynne Walker, arts broadcaster and journalist - and with the help of numerous recordings, visual images and Ravel’s own letters - Gerald Larner reveals the hidden personality of the composer of Boléro, Daphnis and Chloe, Mother Goose, La Valse, Le Tombeau de Couperin and many other works on the list of all-time favourites.

From Gerald Larner’s files: “Unravelled”