MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) La Valse (Poème choréographie) 

Taken from the Dublin In international Piano Spectacular
All seven previous winners in a once-off performance.
PHILIPPE CASSARD (1988),
PAVEL NERSESSIAN (1991),
DAVIDE FRANCESCHETTI (1994),
MAX LEVINSON (1997),
ALEXEI NABIOULIN (2000),
ANTTI SIIRALA (2003)
ROMAIN DESCHARMES (2006)
and featuring
JOHN O'CONOR (Artistic Director)
This piece: MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) La Valse (Poème choréographie)
Performed by : PHILIPPE & ROMAIN
In April 1920 Ravel visited the opulent home of Misia Godebski in Paris to play through a piano draft of a new ballet
score for Diaghilev and his colleagues. He had planned to write a "symphonic poem" based on the Viennese waltz for
many years, as early as 1906 in fact, and when the great ballet impresario offered him a further commission, after the
success of "Daphnis et Chloe" (1912) he decided to adapt the piece he had been working on, at that time called
"Wien" (Vienna), into a "choreographic poem". He said it would be "a grand waltz, a sort of homage to the memory
of the great Strauss, not Richard -- the other, Johann". The presentation was a disaster: the composer Francis Poulenc
was present on this extraordinary occasion and realised that as the music proceeded Diaghilev was becoming
increasingly embarrassed At the end Diaghilev was dismissive: "It is a masterpiece... but not a ballet... It is the picture
of a ballet... the painting of a ballet". Ravel picked his manuscript up from the piano and left, never to return: "not
even Stravinsky said a word...I was staggered!", Poulenc later recalled, though he agreed with Diaghilev's assessment.
Ravel never had anything further to do with Diaghilev and relationships with Stravinsky became permanently strained.
Despite this setback, Ravel decided to proceed with "Wien" as an orchestral piece, finally changing the name to
"The Waltz". The work had its orchestral première at a Lamoreux Concert on December 12th 1920, with the subtitle
"choreographic poem", and the stage version was undertaken much later by the dancer and choreographer Ida
Rubenstein at the Paris Opera in 1928. The published instrumental versions, one for solo piano and one for piano
duet which we hear tonight, were written after the orchestral score was completed and are not just the original piano
draft he played Diaghilev.
He described the work as "a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz combined with an impression of a fantastic
whirling movement leading to death. The scene is located in an Imperial palace around 1855... dancing couples can be
glimpsed through swirling clouds. As they slowly clear, we see a huge ballroom filled by a circling crowd". His mood at
the time had been greatly affected by his experiences in the First World War and the death of his beloved mother in
1916. The work comprises two enormous climaxes, the first being the longer. A misty opening leads into a
typical melody. Later this is followed by a fresh theme with rising and falling sevenths. There are at least eight waltz
tunes, often only heard in snatches, to be heard as the music swirls through its two climaxes. The first of these
5
finishes in a happy frame of mind but the second takes on a far darker, tragic mood and the final sixteen bars
produce a frenetic crescendo.
For more information on this and all things in relation to the Dublin International Piano Competition, please go to www.DIPC.ie