Page "Maurice Ravel" Paragraph 74

Many of his most innovative compositions were developed first as piano music.

Ravel used this miniaturist approach to build up his architecture with many finely wrought strokes.

To fill the requirements of larger works, he multiplied the number of small building blocks.

This demonstrates the great regard he had for the piano traditions of Couperin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin and Liszt.

For example, Gaspard de la nuit can be viewed as an extension of Liszt ’ s virtuosity and advanced harmonics.

Even Ravel ’ s most difficult pieces, however, are marked by elegance and refinement.

Walter Gieseking found some of Ravel ’ s piano works to be among the most difficult pieces for the instrument but always based on “ musically perfectly logical concepts ”; not just technically demanding but also requiring the right expression.