#la valse

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La Valse and La Galope by Paul Gavarni, lithographs c. 1830s (Yale University Art Gallery collection).

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©La Valse (Chiara Romanini)

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La valse | Camille Claudel

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La Valse (The Waltz)

Sculpture by Camille Claudel

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Miriam Miller and Davide Riccardo

Miriam Miller and Davide Riccardo, “La Valse”, choreo by George Balanchine (1974), music by Maurice Ravel (“La Valse”, “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales”), costume by Barbara Karinska (Varvara Jmoudsky), New York City Ballet, David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City, USA.

Source and more info at: New York City Ballet Website New York City Ballet on TikTok New York City Ballet on Twitter New York City Ballet on Threads New York City Ballet on You Tube New York City Ballet on Facebook New York City Ballet on Instagram

Photographer Paul Kolnik Website Photographer Paul Kolnik on Facebook

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[balanchine-ballet-master]

I would watch Tanaquil [LeClercq] dance, and I would try to take what I had seen and what I had felt and apply it to sentences, paragraphs. Both Tanaquil (I could never bring myself to call her Tanny) and Balanchine would speak of the balance and the placement and the building of parts to create a ballet, or a particular piece of the ballet, and I could try to apply this to the shape and the rhythm of my writing. You should try to hear music when you write, and you should always try to replicate beautiful moments in your life through your words. Tanaquil gave me this. She also became, in a sense, my own Laura, in that she was crippled by polio, and the beautiful dances stopped. But her own, remarkable beauty did not stop. She wrote, she read and commented brilliantly on what she consumed. And she was a remarkable, durable friend.

     —Tennessee Williams

Photo: Tanaquil LeClercq in La Valse, with Nicholas Magallanes, 1951. Jack Mitchell via Getty Images

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La Valse — Maurice Ravel (arranged by the composer for piano solo)

La Valse is French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel’s 1920 tribute to the Viennese waltz, a dance style of classical music which was falling out of fashion at the time. Originally conceived as a ballet, La Valse blends Romantic idioms with Ravel’s characteristically unusual harmonic style. The piece is often analyzed as representing the evolution and destruction of the waltz style after the recent World War I, although Ravel disputed this interpretation.

Anyway time for my ramble, so La Valse is most frequently performed in its full orchestra version (important note that Ravel is often regarded as one of the greatest orchestrators in history). The version for solo piano is rarely performed because it’s really hard and honestly loses a lot of its sonic character being reduced from a full orchestra down to a single piano. (There’s a 2-piano arrangement that’s more common).

I find the solo piano arrangement of La Valse fascinating because it’s honestly. not amazing. (at least in comparison to a lot of Ravel’s work). I still love it and I wouldn’t say it’s bad by any means, but as much as I love Ravel, the reduction is awkward. it loses a lot of the orchestral version’s character, like a black-and-white photograph of a vividly colorful painting. you’re forced to focus on different details because so much is lost (or maybe I should say changed, even though the notes stay the same) from the original.

If you follow along with the sheet music you’ll see several times where there’s a smaller staff above the main one—these are ossias, instrumental parts from the original put in the music as an optional alternative to the main written part. A lot of these are glissandi (slides, basically), originally scored for string instruments, that get weirdly roughened by the translation to piano. A single pianist doesn’t have enough hands to capture everything that was going on in the original.

But basically, what I’m saying is this—I don’t know why Ravel wrote this arrangement at all. Not in a “it’s bad and has no value” way, but in a “this is not the La Valse I saw the symphony perform” way. It’s almost a different piece at this point, and I kind of wonder if that’s why he wrote it: look how this radically reduced version of my art completely transforms the soul of the original- it’s the same work, but it’s not the same music! even like this it’s so Ravel it can stand on its own as something else! !! !!!!!!!

[balletroyale]

The Royal Ballet in La Valse