1818–1906 · France
Jean-Henri Ravina (1818–1906) was a pianist, composer and teacher from Bordeaux, France, who played as a virtuoso. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and toured widely in France, Spain and Russia. For players he is of interest above all for his piano studies, which are placed next to those by Moscheles and Cramer.
Jean-Henri Ravina was born on 20 May 1818 in Bordeaux. He had his first music lessons at home, taught by his mother, Eugénie Ravina, a well-known teacher in Bordeaux.
He first played in public at the age of eight, performing works by Friedrich Kalkbrenner. The violinist Pierre Rode was at the concert and advised the boy to carry on with his musical studies.
After that Ravina went to Paris. He first attended the private music school run by the father of Charles-Valentin Alkan, and then entered the Paris Conservatoire, in the piano class of Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann.
Counterpoint was part of his Conservatoire years too, taught by Anton Reicha and Aimé Leborne. Ravina took first prize for piano in 1834.
At seventeen Ravina became an assistant to a professor at the Conservatoire, but two years later he left in order to devote himself fully to a career as a virtuoso.
He gave concerts across France, Spain and Russia. In 1858 Ravina visited Russia and performed with success in Saint Petersburg. Alongside this he taught, and earned a good reputation as a music teacher.
Ravina's friends included Charles-Valentin Alkan and Antoine François Marmontel, well-known French pianists. In 1861 he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Jean-Henri Ravina died in Paris on 30 September 1906.
Ravina wrote mainly for the piano, chiefly studies. They are ranked alongside the studies of Moscheles and Cramer.
Besides studies, he wrote concertos, rondos, divertimentos, variations and fantasies for the piano. He also arranged Beethoven's symphonies for piano four hands.
The site has his study «Etude agilité», at upper-intermediate level, for solo piano.