'The title Valses nobles et sentimentales sufficiently indicates that I was intent on writing a set of Schubertian waltzes' - Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel Photo: Public Domain
Orchestra Wellington conducted by Marc Taddei.
Ravel seemed to be aiming for something that would be fun, and yet highly elegant. He wanted to 'clarify' his harmony in this work, as audiences of his day still found it challenging, with its dissonances and unresolved harmonies.
He wrote these waltzes first as a piano piece, but the ballerina Natasha Trouhanova persuaded him to orchestrate them in order to present them as part of an evening of short ballets set to music by different contemporary composers.
The work is arranged into seven waltzes and an epilogue.
Recorded 9 September 2017, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Graham Kennedy
