ravel - piano

[gastone73]

I would like to study some piano pieces by Ravel. Could anybody give me some title on imslp? SInce I'm not a pianist and I'm going to study Ravel from a composer point of view I need pieces that are not too difficult to play. I'm interested in piano solos, chamber music where the piano has an accompaniment role and in vocal pieces.
Thanks in advance

[sbeckmesser]

As a non-piano-playing piano player (my primary instrument is the violin) I've not found much Ravel that doesn't require tons of technique. But you might try certain of the Valses nobles et sentimentales, the easier movements of Le tombeau de Couperin as well as the Pavane pour une infante défunte. If you can find a playing partner, the original 4-hand Mother Goose (Ma mère l'oye) was written for children and is distinctly easier than those pieces. And while they are great pieces, stay away from Miroirs, Gaspard de la nuit and most certainly Ravel's piano version of La valse, which looks far easier on the page than it is to play. I believe the piano parts in the chamber music are difficult but some of the song accompaniments may be at our skill level.

--Sixtus

[pocoallegro]

As a pianist, I can tell you that Sixtus is right on the money. There is virtually nothing "easy" to play by Ravel. The closest thing I could recommend would be the Prelude for piano. A la maniere de Borodin is not too bad, but it gets complicated on the last two pages. The Berceuse sur le nom de Faure is also reasonable, but there are some harder moments on the second page. The Chants populaires, the 2 Melodies Hebraiques, and Sainte could also work. Good luck!

[sbeckmesser]

Barenreiter has a recent (non-Urtext, non-critical-edition, fingering-added) volume of "easy" Ravel that contains the following:

Prélude
Pavane pour une Infante défunte
Menuet sur le Nom d’Haydn
À la manière de … Borodine (Valse)
À la manière de … Chabrier (Paraphrase sur un air de Gounod)
Menuet Antique
Valses nobles et sentimentales (Nos. III and IV)
Forlane (from Le tombeau de Couperin

Together the previous respondents to this question have gotten most of these pieces. Its nice to see our opinions backed by a major music publisher.

--Sixtus

[Alie]

I like Ravel's "Pavane". Frankly speaking I haven't heard in the performance on piano, but on a disk, called "Pavane", which I've foun'd at eclassical site and which is the record of Faure's, Ravel's, Dubussy's and Dubugnon's compositions, made by violist Maxim Rysanov, this composition sounds amazingly!