Ravel’s plans for a piano concerto can be traced back to 1906, but it was only in early 1929 that the composer started working on it in earnest. Since its successful premiere in January 1932 the Concerto in G major has been part of the repertoire of all great pianists. In an interview, Ravel said of his work that it was “a concerto in the truest sense of the word. By that I mean that it is written in the spirit of the concertos by Mozart and Saint-Saëns.” Alongside manuscripts and prints, the Urtext edition is also based on a recording made under Ravel’s supervision by the work’s dedicatee Marguerite Long.