32. And he could be cheeky in his criticism: #Parsifal, he concluded, was ‘less entertaining than La vie parisienne. All the same, it is less boring than the Missa solemnis, that inferior work by #Beethoven’. #Ravel150
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33. Despite his personal and professional struggles with Debussy and ‘debussysme’, Ravel was a staunch defender of Debussy in print, describing him in one review as ‘the most important and profoundly musical composer living today’. #Ravel150
35. Ravel had little patience with the machinations of conservative critics: sending a blistering article to press he wrote to the journal’s editor, ‘This is, I think, not at all what you asked for. It’s more combative – but I believe it’s what had to be said.’ #Ravel150
36. Ravel tried desperately and unsuccessfully to join the air force in 1914, despite his little brother's disapproval: ‘The damn things keep crashing’, Edouard wrote. #Ravel150
37. So he spent months driving a truck around Verdun , and left stunning descriptions of the abandoned town: ‘I will doubtless see more horrifying, more repugnant sights; I do not think I will ever experience anything as profound and strange as this sort of mute terror.’
38. Ravel's truck, which he’d christened Adélaïde, then broke down, leaving him to play Robinson Crusoe (as he put it) in the woods for over a week. #Ravel150
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