If you're looking for a general 'life and works' volume on Ravel, then this isn't it. Gerald Larner's Maurice Ravel (Phaidon Press, 1996) and Ravel Remembered, edited by Roger Nichols (Faber, 1987), are the places to look for that purpose. This Cambridge Companion, on the other hand, offers a selection of essays by leading scholars in their field, approaching Ravel and his music from various angles.Firstly, there are three essays on cultural and aesthetic issues - 'History and homage', 'Evocations of exoticism' and 'Musical objects and machines'. 'History and homage' places Ravel in a historical context, in relation to the influence of the past and of contemporary colleagues (such as Debussy and Satie), and discusses Ravel's awareness of modern trends of his time - his enthusiasms ranged from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire to Gershwin.

Jazz is also one of the influences discussed in the chapter on exoticism, as is the Orient, Spanish music and Gypsy music, all of which play an important part in Ravel's musical colour-scheme. Ravel is shown as one of a generation which was the first to take 'exotic' music seriously - there are interesting observations on the dismissive attitudes of earlier musicians, such as Berlioz. It also includes Ravel's (mostly critical) opinions on the exotically-influenced achievements of some of his (now totally unknown) contemporaries.

Part II offers in-depth analysis of specific works and genres. Although the aim here is to provide discussion which is accessible to the general reader, much is on the technical side, and there are frequent references to particular places in the scores, so that the reader can only get the full benefit of these chapters by having scores to hand. Nevertheless, there is interesting general discussion about many of the works.

I was particularly interested by Part III, which covers the performance and reception of Ravel's music. There is a fascinating article on the performance practices of early recordings, including those made by Ravel himself on piano rolls and by his pupils Robert Casadesus and Vlado Perlemuter. The writer, Ronald Woodley, sensibly points out that it would be foolish to treat any of these performances (especially the highly idiosyncratic ones by the composer) as in any way definitive - they certainly don't provide answers for today's pianists, but do, however, offer plenty of food for thought. The book concludes with an interesting selection of translations of early reviews of Ravel's major works.

This book would provide excellent material for students writing essays on Ravel, and is a well-presented collection of articles which a knowledgeable music lover may enjoy dipping into. It isn't a book that suits being read from cover to cover, and its content may deter the less technically-equipped reader.

Paul Janes