IDAGIO | Ravel: La Valse - Mussorgsky: Les Tableaux d'une exposition (Orch. Ravel) 3149020941164

Featuring

François-Xavier Roth
Les Siècles
Modest Mussorgsky
Maurice Ravel

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Critical Reception

At its premiere, La Valse divided critics, with some calling it a masterpiece and others, including younger composers like Georges Auric and Darius Milhaud, mocking it.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Maurice Ravel considered his work La Valse to be tragic in the Greek sense, expressing the fatal whirling, dizziness, and voluptuousness of dance pushed to its paroxysm.

Compositional Technique

Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition is notable for its tone color and clarity, which are typical of French musical style, and includes the use of an alto saxophone.

Interpretation

The ensemble Les Siècles, led by François-Xavier Roth, uses period instruments to perform these works, aiming to do justice to Ravel's orchestration.

Composition History

Ravel's La Valse was initially conceived as a homage to Johann Strauss, titled 'Wien', and was intended to depict an imperial court around 1855.

Historical Context

Although Ravel's La Valse evokes the Viennese waltz, it also reflects the apocalypse of the First World War, a terrible trauma for Europeans.

Composition History

Serge Koussevitzky commissioned Ravel to orchestrate Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in 1922, and the premiere took place on October 19, 1922, at the Paris Opéra.