La Valse : Work information
- Composers
- (Joseph) Maurice Ravel ( Music, Images,)
- Performed by
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean-Claude Casadesus (Conductor)
This work
- Work name
- La Valse
- Work number
- n/a
- Key
- n/a
- Genre
- A
- Composed
- 1920-01-01 02:00:00
This recording
- Label
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- Producer
- Alan Peters
- Engineer
- Dick Lewzey
- Recording date
- n/a
The Artists
Conductor: Jean-Claude Casadesus
Jean-Claude Casadesus was born into a family of musicians and actors in Paris where he studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris. He started his musical career as a percussionist, but also continued to study composition, composing several pieces for the cinema and the theatre, and conducting, working under Pierre Dervaux in Paris and Pierre Boulez in Basel. In 1968, he was appointed resident conductor at the Opera de Paris and the Opera Comique. He created the Orchestre National de Lille, was appointed its Music Director and since then has devoted most of his energy to this orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestra has built a reputation as a dynamic group with an excellent repertoire, making it one of the leading orchestras in France today.
Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1946 by Sir Thomas Beecham, who was the Music Director until his death in 1961. By handpicking the personnel of his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas attracted some of Britain's most outstanding musicians. Through its many concerts, recordings and broadcasts, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra became internationally established as a virtuoso body quite unlike any other orchestra, founding a unique tradition in which there was a combination of discipline and flexibility, individual artistry, virtuosity and ensemble that stemmed from Beecham's relationship with his chosen players. This tradition subsequently attracted conductors of the greatest quality and diversity.
In 1961, after Sir Thomas's death, Rudolf Kempe became Music Director and established new artistic and professional directions for the Orchestra. It was also during this period, in 1963, that the Orchestra became a self-governing body. This has been the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's form of constitution ever since; and in 1966 Her Majesty The Queen conferred the Royal title upon the Orchestra.
Following Rudolf Kempe, the Orchestra continued to attract some of the world's most outstanding conductors as Music Directors including Antal Dorati, Walter Weller, André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. The Orchestra has also formed special associations with Lord Menuhin, Yuri Temirkanov and Sir Charles Mackerras. Since September 1996 the orchestra's Music Director has been the young Italian maestro, Daniele Gatti.
The Composers
(Joseph) Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel was born in his mother’s aunt’s house in Ciboure, France. His father Joseph was an engineer and actively encouraged a musical career for his son. Maurice was taught privately by Henri Ghys, then Emile Decombes, and finally went to the Paris Conservatoire in 1889. Whilst there, he was influenced by the music of such composers as Rimsky-Korsakov, Wagner, Chabrier and Satie , and shortly after leaving the Conservatoire in 1895 he returned for Fauré’s composition class.
By 1898 Ravel's music was being published and performed, but the Conservatoire was largely unsympathetic to Ravel’s talents and he failed to win a prize several years in a row, eventually forcing him to leave. In 1905 he tried again for the Prix de Rome, but once again broke the rules. However, he was now an established composer (especially with the Quartet of 1903), and the tricky situation forced the director of the Conservatoire to leave his post, allowing Fauré to take over.
The years that followed were sometimes difficult for Ravel. There was violent debate in the press over the merits of his compositional style, and for a while he turned his back on the arguments and composed a large number of works, among them Gaspard de la Nuit, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, and Daphnis et Chloé. This last ballet was commissioned by Diaghilev through whom Ravel also met Stravinsky in 1909.
When war broke out in 1914, Ravel was in the middle of a period of concentrated composition. Most of the work was never completed, though his suite Le Tombeau de Couperin survives from this period. The war affected Ravel deeply - he wanted to serve his country but was underweight by two kilograms. He served in the motor transport corps, but felt he wasn’t doing enough. When he contracted dysentery he was moved to Paris to recover, and wanted to compose again, but was deeply affected by the death of his mother.
When Debussy also died shortly afterwards, Ravel was left as the leading figure in French music. The authorities wanted to confer on him the order of the Légion d’honneur, but Ravel refused, as he felt disillusioned with authorities in general. He withdrew from Paris life and moved to Montfort-l’Amaury. His compositional efforts were sluggish and painstaking. He wrote memorials to Debussy and Fauré, and worked on several smaller pieces. He also exercised his genius for orchestration again, most notably with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which was written for piano and which Ravel arranged for orchestra (the version which is most often performed today).
Ravel travelled abroad in Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. In 1928 he travelled to the USA and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University. He wrote Bolero whilst orchestrating some music from Albéniz’s Iberia and the Concerto for the Left Hand for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. By 1932, however, Ravel was suffering from Pick’s Disease, which gradually rendered him incapable of even writing his own name. He died in 1937 after an unsuccessful brain operation.
Related Composers: Debussy, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Fauré, Saint-Saens, Rodrigo
Track listing
-
La Valse
12:58 min
Notes
Ravel's 'poeme choreograhpique' La Valse was first conceived in 1906 as a "sort of homage to the memory of the great Strauss". It required a ballet commission from Diaghilev in 1919 for Ravel to put pen to paper, but the impressario rejected the work. For him, it was not a ballet but "the portrait of a ballet". The first performance of La Valse therefore took place in the concert hall in 1920; the work was not choreographed until 1928.
Although the composer denied it, many saw in La Valse a reflection of the First World War; the increasing frenzy and turmoil of a once beautiful Waltz could be said to parallel the fragmentation and destruction of European society.
In any case, it is clear that Ravel always intended the work to be a ballet, even supplying an accompanying scenario:
"Through the rifts in whirling clouds waltzing couples may be seen. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees an immense hall filled with a swirling throng...."
Listen how Ravel gradually parts the clouds to reveal an Imperial palace of 1855 complete with waltzing couples, and how he whips them into a whirling frenzy of ecstasy "overcome and exhilarated by nothing but 'the waltz'."