La valse

Composer: RAVEL, Maurice
  • Ravel’s early working title for this symphonic poem was Wien (Vienna).
  • Ravel began work on this piece just before WWI broke out. During the war, he struggled to finish his compositions. The impetus to complete this one was a ballet commission from Sergei Diaghilev, who actually ended up rejecting the work after all, feeling it wasn’t suitable for a ballet score.
  • Ravel completed La valse (which he subtitled “poème chorégraphique”) in 1919-20.
  • Though Diaghilev rejected La valse forhis Ballets Russes, Bronislava Nijinska choreographed it instead, and her ballet was presented at the Paris Opera on May 23, 1929.1

Sources

  1. Barbara L. Kelly, “Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 20, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052145.

Cut IDs

19950