La Valse Ravel Organ Transcription

Welcome to Maurice Ravel's La Valse, transcribed for organ solo by Eugenio Maria Fagiani. Several interpretations have been given to this masterpiece by Ravel. The work, commissioned to the author first in 1909 by the Russian theatre producer Djagilev, was actually written between 1919 and 1920 and first premiered in Paris on December, 12th 1920. In these ten years, Ravel experienced both the culmination of the Viennese waltz, symbolically representing also the climax of the glory of the Austrian empire, the decay brought about by the World War I and the deep grief linked to the death of his mother, whom he was particularly attached. But, even if La Valse is a growing progression of waltzes blooming and spreading finally into a heated final dance between life and death, Ravel himself denied these interpretations and described the work’s scenario as a “scene that grows progressively brighter” where couples in an imperial dance court dance like “swirling clouds that afford glimpses”.