La Valse

Ravel first conceived the idea of a grand waltz in 1906, long before La Valse took its final form. He envisioned a tribute to Johann Strauss and the golden age of the Viennese ballroom—a brilliant, opulent showpiece tentatively titled Wien. The project lingered for years as a sketch, interrupted by other commissions and eventually by World War I. Ravel’s wartime service as a truck driver and orderly left him physically and emotionally exhausted, and the cheerful pre-war concept of a sparkling Viennese homage no longer matched the world he returned to.

When he resumed work after the war, the piece transformed. The elegant Strauss-style waltz he originally imagined became something darker and more complex—a vision of beauty seen through the filter of catastrophe. Completed in 1920 and premiered in 1920–21, La Valse emerged as both tribute and commentary: a dazzling reconstruction of the Viennese waltz and a reflection on an empire and cultural world that had been swept away. Though Ravel resisted purely programmatic interpretations, the evolution of the piece makes its trajectory clear: what began as a glowing celebration became a masterpiece shaped by upheaval, loss, and a new century’s harder light.

Adaptation Commissioned and World Premiered by River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) based in Houston, Texas October 2025.

The arranger writes….

La Valse has always been more than a simple waltz. Ravel called it “a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz,” but it is really his haunting reflection on an era of elegance slowly fading away.

The music begins in a hazy, shadowy uncertainty, then gradually blossoms into a glittering swirl of sound that grows more intense and more urgent until it spirals into sheer chaos.

When I was commissioned by ROCO to arrange this piece, I needed to reimagine how its essence could live within the smaller ensemble. With only half the size of Ravel’s original orchestration, I focused on the winds, brass, and percussion, using color and texture to preserve the same richness and energy that make the piece so magnetic.

The transparency of a chamber orchestra also allows you to hear details that sometimes disappear in the full orchestration: the subtle dialogue between instruments, the shimmer of the harp, the intimacy of the winds, and the rhythmical snap of percussion.

My hope is that even with fewer players, the grandeur, tension, and passion of La Valse still sweeps you away, as if the entire ballroom is dancing right to the edge of its own beautiful collapse.

Sound file from the premiere performance

Instrumentation:

• Flute 1
• Flute 2 (Doubles on Piccolo)
• Oboe 1
• Oboe 2 (Doubles on English Horn)
• Clarinet 1 in A (Doubles on B♭)
• Clarinet 2 in A (Doubles on B♭ and Bass Clar.)
• 2 Bassoons
• 2 Horns in F
• 2 Trumpets in C
• Trombone
• Tuba
• Percussion 1 – Timpani, Glockenspiel, Triangle, Tam-tam
• Percussion 2 – Tambourine, Crash Cymbal, Bass Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Castanets
• Harp
• Violin 1
• Violin 2
• Viola
• Violoncello
• Double Bass

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