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Maurice Ravel: La valse

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description Maurice Ravel: La valse Overview

Maurice Ravel's La valse is an orchestral work completed in 1920 and described by the composer as a choreographic poem. Conceived around the Viennese waltz, it begins with fragments emerging from a dark orchestral texture before developing into increasingly dense and unstable dance music. The score is performed both as a concert work and as ballet music, and its elaborate orchestration requires an ensemble capable of sharply defined rhythms, rapid changes of color, and a turbulent final acceleration.

help Maurice Ravel: La valse FAQ

Is La valse meant to portray the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

La valse moves from misty fragments to an increasingly violent destruction of the Viennese waltz, so it is often heard as a vision of a society collapsing after World War I. Ravel resisted reducing it to a simple political allegory and described it as an apotheosis of the waltz.

Why did Sergei Diaghilev reject La valse as a ballet?

Ravel presented the score to Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who reportedly admired the music but regarded it as a portrait of a ballet rather than a workable ballet. The rejection damaged their relationship, although La valse soon succeeded in the concert hall.

What happens musically at the beginning of La valse?

Low strings and bassoons reveal scraps of waltz rhythm through a dark orchestral haze. The fragments gradually assemble into an opulent ballroom before tempo, accent, and orchestration become increasingly unstable.

Did Ravel write versions of La valse for piano?

Yes, La valse exists as an orchestral score and in versions for solo piano and two pianos. The keyboard versions expose its layered rhythms, but the orchestral original supplies the extreme shifts of color that drive its final breakdown.

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