Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 08/30/2005, uploaded on 01/13/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In 1906, Maurice Ravel conceived of a tribute to Johann Strauss II and the grand waltz tradition of Vienna entitled Wien. He was fascinated by the waltz, its rhythms and the “joie de vivre” expressed therein. This conception of a work, however, was set aside during Ravel’s service in World War I, but was taken up again in its aftermath. During this time, the form of the piece changed in part due to a commission from Sergei Diaghilev for a ballet. Giving the work a new title, La Valse, Ravel completed its composition during 1919-20.

With the orchestration already completed, Ravel presented the piece in a two piano version to Diaghilev himself. Relations between the composer and choreographer were already strained after Daphnis et Chloé, and La Valse became the catalyst of their final falling out. After hearing the work, Diaghilev proclaimed the work a masterpiece, yet further remarked that it was no ballet, “but a portrait of a ballet.” Ravel was offended by Diaghilev’s judgment and ended their professional relationship. The animosity between the two men was great and when they met again in 1925, Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev’s hand. Insulted, Diaghilev challenged Ravel to a duel but friends fortunately persuaded him to recant. La Valse, however, was in time staged as a ballet, premiered by the Royal Flemish Opera Ballet in October 1926, and staged again later by the famed George Ballantine in 1951.

Despite its initial failure as a ballet, La Valse nevertheless became a concert favorite. It has also opened the way for much speculation as to the work’s philosophical meaning and Ravel’s intended imagery. In the preface of the score, he gave the following image: "Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855." Despite this scene, one of such ethereal beauty and grandeur, some have attempted to find it a symbol of the decay and destruction of Europe in the aftermath of the Great War. Ravel himself denied this claim, stating “It doesn't have anything to do with the present situation in Vienna, and it also doesn't have any symbolic meaning in that regard. In the course of La Valse, I did not envision a dance of death or a struggle between life and death. (The year of the choreographic argument, 1855, repudiates such an assumption.)"       Joseph DuBose

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La Valse                   Maurice Ravel   

When listening to La Valse, one imagines dancers gradually emerging from a whirlpool of frantic motion.  Ravel wrote that "...[C]louds whirl about. Occasionally they part to allow a glimpse of waltzing couples. As they lift, one can discern a gigantic hall filled with a crowd of dancers in motion. The stage gradually brightens. The glow of the chandeliers breaks out fortissimo." 

Ravel's original idea was to create a work which would be the apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, which ruled the Imperial Court at the time (1855). But as the piece evolved, Ravel called it "a fantastic and fatefully inescapable whirlpool".   One feels the sense of foreboding underlying the frantic elation.  The gaiety seems forced, decadent and anguished.  Ravel combines these contrasting moods of gaiety and impending doom throughout this work.  There is a whirlwind of frantic elation, broken off suddenly into harsh strident chords with an underlying restlessness.  Ravel achieves this through a variety of constantly changing colors, with their tragic underpinnings. 

The original orchestral version was transcribed by Ravel into a piano version in 1920 and into a two-piano version in 1921.    Soojin Ahn

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.