Top 5 Favorite Ravel Works

[Mirror Image]

Have fun! There are no stipulations for this poll. Here is my list in no particular order:

Piano Concerto for left-hand
Piano Concerto in G
Piano Trio
Violin Sonata (No. 2)
Ma mère l'oye (orchestral version)

[Jo498]

piano trio
concerto for the left hand
string quartet
la valse
gaspard de la nuit

[Christo]

Not a bad start to begin with.  My bet:

Menuet antique (1895, orch. 1929)
Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet (1905)
Daphnis et Chloé (1912)
Le tombeau de Couperin (1917, orch. 1919)
Piano Concerto in G (1929–31)

[Wanderer]

Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand
Gaspard de la nuit
Daphnis et Chloé
L'enfant et les sortilèges
La valse

[jochanaan]

Ma mere l'Oye, orchestral version
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Concerto for Piano Left Hand
La Valse
And finally, "Seventeen minutes of orchestra without any music."

[Brian]

Piano Concerto in G
Piano Concerto for the left hand
Le Tombeau de Couperin (piano version)*
La valse
Gaspard de la Nuit

*Not too crazy about the orchestral arrangement, but the four-saxophone version by Ellipsos is a ton of fun.

[Karl Henning]

I like all the love for La valse!

[Christo]

And finally, "Seventeen minutes of orchestra without any music."

Like that one too. 

[Karl Henning]

Like that one too. 

+1

[Luke]

1 - L'enfant et les sortileges (the echt-Ravel work, ought to be a stipulated choice, really      )
2 - Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme
3 - Piano Trio
4 - Piano Concerto for the Left hand
plus one of Sonata for Violin and Cello/Piano concerto in G/Chansons Madecasses/La Valse depending on my mood

[North Star]

L'Enfant et les Sortilèges
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Piano Concerto in G
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Piano Trio

[Luke]

Good list (i.e. nearly matches mine      )

[North Star]

Good list (i.e. nearly matches mine      )

Your list is very nice as well, Luke. 

[Karl Henning]

2 - Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme

I just may have listened to these for the first time this weekend (* hangs head in shame *)

[North Star]

I just may have listened to these for the first time this weekend (* hangs head in shame *)

I suppose you have heard Deux Mélodies hébraïques, Chansons madécasses, Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques, and Histoires naturelles, though? Right? 

[springrite]

Gaspard
PC in G
PC for the left hand
Daphnes et Chloe
La Valse


I know, I am being boringly predictable.

[Luke]

I just may have listened to these for the first time this weekend (* hangs head in shame *)

Ravel was living at Clarens with Stravinsky when he wrote them, and it shows. From maurice-ravel.net

They were closest in the years before the First World War. In 1913 Ravel stayed with Stravinsky at Clarens in Switzerland and they worked closely together on a performing version of Moussorgsky's Khovanshchina (now apparently lost). According to Stravinsky, on an excursion to Varèse near Lake Maggiore they couldn't find separate hotel rooms, and so slept in the same bed (Stravinsky, [1959], p.62). At the same time, Ravel was starting work on his Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, for which he used a similar ensemble of instruments to Stravinsky's in the recently completed Three Japanese lyrics. The first song in Ravel's group of Mallarmé settings, Soupir, is dedicated to Stravinsky.

(the other two are dedicated to Florent Schmitt and Satie respectively.)

Strav's Japanese Lyrics were themselves modelled in part on Pierrot Lunaire, as he told Ravel at the time, so there's a bit of a family tree going on here. They are certainly amongst Ravel's most refined, advanced, subtle and complex works, and are a really concentrated example of his style at its best. I adore them unreservedly!

[Karl Henning]

I suppose you have heard Deux Mélodies hébraïques, Chansons madécasses, Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques, and Histoires naturelles, though? Right? 

I still have some catch-up, it is true.  But I did hear a fellow student sing the Chansons madécasses on a recital when I was a freshman at the College of Wooster  0:)

Luke, I knew that about the Japanese Lyrics!

[Mirror Image]

*Wonders if Karl will make a list...

[San Antone]

Ma mère l'oye (either for solo piano or orchestrated)
Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme
Piano trio in A Minor
Piano Concerto in G
Sonata for Violin and Cello