Author Description

In 1927 as Maurice Ravel - dandy, eccentric, and curmudgeon - voyages across the Atlantic aboard the luxurious ocean liner The France to begin his triumphant grand tour across the United States. Ravel travels across America, playing in grand concert halls from Boston to Chicago to California, meeting luminaries of the day including Stravinsky, Mahler, Bartok, Toscanini, Gershwin, and even Charlie Chaplin. Concentrating both on Ravel's personal life - sartorially and socially splendid - and on his most successful compositions from 1927 to 1937.