Ravel convalesced slowly from dysentery contracted during the war, a period of illness doubtless complicated by his incipient neurological disorder. His first work after Le Tombeau de Couperin of 1914–17 was the “choreographic poem” La Valse, completed in 1920.

The idea of a work in homage to Johann Strauss goes back many years; by 1914 there was a title, Wien (Vienna), and the notion of an “apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, …a fantastic and fatal kind of Dervish’s dance.” By 1920, the score was called simply La Valse, the former title having been deemed inappropriate after the war.

The preface reads:

Through whirling clouds can be glimpsed now and again waltzing couples. The mist gradually disperses, and at letter A [in the score] a huge ballroom filled with a great crowd of whirling dances is revealed. The stage grows gradually lighter. At the fortissimo at letter B the lights in the chandeliers burst forth. The scene is an imperial palace about 1855.

There is something of the macabre in Ravel’s fantastic vision of the waltz, the dalliance of an irrelevant civilization soon to vanish. The main material is developed from a motive first stated by bassoons amid confused rumblings in lower strings. This gradually transforms itself into a full orchestral statement. From here on the tutti sections alternate with restrained, trio-like material punctuated at times by brass, in a Straussian series of waltz episodes. Everything from the midpoint is a restatement and transformation of the waltzes into a kind of delirious motion—the “fatal whirling” that culminates in the chromatic and metrically shocking final cadence. As usual, the orchestration is a garden of delights, for example the multitude of effects given the haprs and the many imitations of the harp elsewhere in the orchestra.

Diaghilev intended for a time to produce La Valse with Stravinksy’s Pulcinella, but it was not danced as a ballet until 1926, when it was produced by the Royal Flemish Ballet in Antwerp, Belgium. Ida Rubinstein’s company danced the work to a scenario by Ravel and choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; this was first performed May 23, 1929, at the Paris Opera. Subsequently George Balanchine choreographed a shining version for the New York City Ballet.

For piccolo, flutes I-II, oboes I-II, English horn, E-flat clarinet, clarinets I-II, bass clarinet, bassoons I-II, contrabassoon; horns I-IV, trumpets I-III, trombones I-III, tuba; timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, castanets, tam-tam, bells; harp; strings.

Composed December 1919 – March 1920; dedicated to Misia Sert, née Godebska, literary socialite; Ravel numbered Misia, her three husbands, and her brother Cipa among his intimates.

First performed December 12, 1920, by the Lamoureux Orchestra of Paris, Camille Chevillard conducting; Ravel and Alfredo Casella gave the first performance of the version for two pianos in Vienna, October 23, 1920.

Published by Durand (Paris, 1921).

Duration about 15 minutes