Ravel - La valse

Ravel conceived La valse as a choreographic poem for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and presented a two-piano version to him in 1920. Diaghilev rejected it, reportedly telling Ravel 'It's a masterpiece, but it's not a ballet,' which led to a permanent personal rupture between the two men.

Ravel described the work as a whirling vision of the Viennese waltz that gradually disintegrates into violence and chaos. He wrote in his program note that it depicts 'the impression of a fantastic, fatal whirling,' and many scholars interpret the piece as a metaphor for the collapse of European civilization after the devastation of World War I.

Yes, Ravel created both a solo piano transcription and a two-piano version of La valse, alongside the original full orchestral score. The solo piano version is extremely virtuosic and is occasionally performed in recitals, though it remains far less frequently heard than the orchestral version.

Ravel originally conceived the idea as early as 1906 under the working title 'Wien' (Vienna), intending it as a grand tribute to the waltz tradition of Johann Strauss II. He set the project aside for years and did not complete it until 1920, by which time World War I had profoundly altered his perspective on European culture.