Piano Concerto in G Major

Composer: RAVEL, Maurice
  • Ravel wrote his Piano Concerto in G Major for piano and orchestra between 1929-31. The following year, Ravel arranged the piece for two pianos.
  • Three movements:
    1. Allegramente (cheerfully)
    2. Adagio assai
    3. Presto
  • Ravel dedicated his piano concerto to French pianist Marguerite Long, who premiered the work in 1932 in Paris, conducted by the composer.1
    • Long wrote the following about the concerto:
      • “[The Concerto in G] is essentially a work of our country. Placing the most original details of harmony, rhythm and melody in a traditional framework, Ravel arouses many parts of our sensibilities with discreet and economic touches; he speaks a new language within the ambit of Mozart and Bach. The music is evocative but not commanding. The composer’s personality is modestly kept out of sight. Yet the whole work is amazingly perfect – quintessentially French music.”2
    • Overall, audiences loved the concerto, so much so that Ravel and Long were able to tour the piece all over Europe following the premiere.
  • Piano Concerto in G Major incorporates several of Ravel’s characteristic musical influences, including the composer’s Basque heritage in the first movement and his interest in Jazz in both the first and third movements.3
  • Listen for – the crack of a musical whip to start the first movement.

Sources

  1. “Piano Concerto in G major, M.83 (Ravel, Maurice),” IMSLP, accessed August 14, 2025, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_in_G_major,_M.83_(Ravel,_Maurice).
  2. Marguerite Long, At the Piano with Ravel, translated by Olive Senior-Ellis, edited by Professor Pierre Laumonier (London: J. M. Dent and Sons Limited, 1973), pg. 42.
  3. Richard Henry Jeric, “Portrait of a Life: Analysis of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G” (Thesis: Kent State University Honors College, 2011), 64.

Cut IDs

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