Maurice Ravel began work on La Valse for orchestra at the end of
1919, using sketches he had made as early as 1906, and completed the score the
following spring; at the same time, he prepared versions for piano solo, and
for two pianos.
The
piece began as a tribute to Strauss, but by the time Ravel returned to the
project after World War I, every facet of European life had been drastically
and irrevocably changed; his concept for the piece could not avoid being
changed as well. Ravel had been shaken by his front-line service as a truck and
ambulance driver. His health had been affected, and his convalescence was
prolonged by his depression over the brutality he had witnessed. He now called the
piece simply La Valse, and spoke of
it as "a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which is mingled
in my mind the fantastic whirl of destiny." Beneath the voluptuous
exterior of this music is a sinister undercurrent. By midpoint in the work the
waltzing couples seem to be, as one writer put it, "dancing on a
volcano." Soyeon Lee
Classical Music | Piano Music
Maurice Ravel
La Valse Play
Recorded on 07/21/2010, uploaded on 01/06/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Maurice Ravel began work on La Valse for orchestra at the end of 1919, using sketches he had made as early as 1906, and completed the score the following spring; at the same time, he prepared versions for piano solo, and for two pianos.
The piece began as a tribute to Strauss, but by the time Ravel returned to the project after World War I, every facet of European life had been drastically and irrevocably changed; his concept for the piece could not avoid being changed as well. Ravel had been shaken by his front-line service as a truck and ambulance driver. His health had been affected, and his convalescence was prolonged by his depression over the brutality he had witnessed. He now called the piece simply La Valse, and spoke of it as "a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which is mingled in my mind the fantastic whirl of destiny." Beneath the voluptuous exterior of this music is a sinister undercurrent. By midpoint in the work the waltzing couples seem to be, as one writer put it, "dancing on a volcano." Soyeon LeeMore music by Maurice Ravel
À la manière de Chabrier
Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques
Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine
Gaspard de la Nuit - Le Gibet
Gaspard de la Nuit - Scarbo
Alborada del Gracioso, from Miroirs
Blues, from Sonata for violin and piano
Rhapsodie espagnole
Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure
Noctuelles from Miroirs
Performances by same musician(s)
Sonata in C Major, K. 330
Etude in c-sharp minor, Op. 2, No. 1
Chaconne
Fantasy in b minor, Op. 28
La Valse
El puerto, from Iberia, Book I
Fête-dieu à Seville, from Iberia, Book I
Paraphrase from Gounod’s Faust
Prelude and Fugue in D-flat Major, Op. 87, No. 15
Evocación, from Iberia, Book I
Classical Music for the Internet Era™
Courtesy of International Music Foundation.