Michel de Calvocoressi  (1877 - 1944)

The writer and critic M.D. Calvocoressi met Ravel in 1898, and after an initial period of mutual suspicion, they became lifelong friends. It was Calvocoressi who provided Ravel with the folk texts for his Cinq mélodies populaires grecques.

Born in Greece, but educated in France, Calvocoressi was a skilled linguist and wrote in several languages. He published books on Liszt (1906), Moussorgsky (1908), Glinka (1911), Schumann (1912), as well translations into English. After the First World War, he moved to England. On musical criticism was published in 1923 (OUP), and Musicians Gallery in 1933.

Ravel dedicated to him Alborada del gracioso in Miroirs.