Ravel
Edition.

Since October 2018

Launched at the initiative of an international collective of musicologists and performing musicians, the Ravel Edition issued its first volume in October 2018, devoted to the Bolero — in the original 1928 ballet version complemented by the second, 1929 concert scoring. The premiere of this revised edition was given in January 2019 by the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam under the baton of George Benjamin, then in May 2019 by the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse under Klaus Mäkelä.

Since then, the collection has grown to twenty-two volumes — from the Piano Concerto to Pictures at an Exhibition, from La Valse to Le Tombeau de Couperin, from the String Quartet to the Rapsodie espagnole, from Ma Mère l'Oye to the Concerto for the Left Hand — complemented by original projects: exclusive orchestrations of the Sonatine and Sites auriculaires by Kenneth Hesketh (premiered by the BBC Philharmonic), the first edition of the Prélude et Danse de Sémiramis premiered in March 2025 by the New York Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, and a revised edition of L'Enfant et les sortilèges premiered in Frankfurt under Alain Altinoglu and in San Diego under Rafael Payare.

Musicologists, performers, sources

Ravel Edition combines musicological and artistic expertise in a distinctive scholarly approach. Alongside the musicologists' work on the manuscripts, an editorial reading committee made up of performers who live with the Ravel repertoire day-to-day contributes knowledge and experience on the questions raised by source analysis — among them Bertrand Chamayou, Renaud Capuçon, Cédric Tiberghien, Louis Langrée, François-Xavier Roth, Ludovic Morlot, together with the conductors George Benjamin, Gustavo Dudamel, John Wilson, Rafael Payare and Cristian Măcelaru.

Work on the manuscripts, autograph documents and first engravings — in collaboration with the Morgan Library in New York, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Archives of the Princely Palace of Monaco — allows a fresh perspective on the sources that restores the works with the utmost rigour and brings to light many editorial details that alter the view handed down by performance tradition.

Reach at the highest international level

The orchestral materials are now performed by more than one hundred and twenty orchestras across twenty-four countries, and are regularly recorded — Ravel Edition releases feature in the honours of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards, the ECHO Klassik and the Recording Academy Awards Japan.

The collection is closely associated with the complete recorded edition of Ravel's works led by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya under Ludovic Morlot (L'Auditori label, worldwide distribution by Naxos). Ravel Edition scores live on the world's leading stages: New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of London, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks — the complete list of 24 flagship orchestras appears in the colophon below.

A partnership with higher music education

Faithful to the encouragement Ravel offered to young musicians, Ravel Edition places a central emphasis on the transmission of interpretative knowledge. The revised editions are programmed in the curricula of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, the Hautes écoles de musique of Lausanne and Geneva, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Working with tomorrow's musicians on rigorous revised editions places Ravel Edition's scholarly approach at the very heart of performer training. Editorial rigour reaches its full meaning only when it is passed on.

Support, transmit, endure

Ravel Edition actively supports projects tied to a deeper understanding of the composer's work: financial aid to students on research subjects, publication of scholarly work, heritage contributions — such as the restoration of the Luthéal at the Musée des instruments de musique in Brussels for the Théâtre royal de La Monnaie's Ravel 2025 anniversary concert, or the restoration of historic recordings — co-commissions and endowments to composition prizes, to the Académie du Festival Ravel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and to the Prix Ravel in Siena.

Ravel Edition works in close partnership with the Fondation Maurice Ravel and the Festival Maurice Ravel; the YouTube channel Papier à musique — launched in January 2022, an exclusive series produced by Émilie Aujé and Camille Guillemain in partnership with the Fondation Maurice Ravel and the Festival / Académie Maurice Ravel, more than 100,000 cumulative views — explores the composer's work face to face with his manuscripts.

Finally, Ravel Edition has placed sustainability at the heart of its approach: scores and orchestral materials are printed in France on high-quality papers meeting PEFC environmental standards, by professionals whose optimised stock management helps reduce the carbon footprint.