PlayPiano
The short answer
A piano version conceived alongside the orchestra. La Valse, solo piano version is a waltz by Maurice Ravel. PlayPiano puts it at Level 10, an estimate.
- waltz
- Key of D major
- stormy
Also known as La Valse: solo piano version; Maurice Ravel's La Valse (Piano solo).
History
A ballet commission in 1919 revived Ravel's earlier waltz idea. He worked on orchestral, solo-piano and two-piano versions together. The publisher describes the two piano versions as independent composer-authored forms of the work, not simply later reductions of an orchestral score. That history explains why the solo version belongs in a piano library in its own right.
Sources
What to listen for
The waltz loses its shape
Follow familiar waltz material as it becomes increasingly disrupted toward the conclusion, in Nichols’s interpretation.
How to practise it
Keep the quiet low-register pulse even while the upper staff remains silent.
- Even repeated accompaniment
- Quiet sound and register awareness
How hard is it
The solo piano version demands large-scale stamina, complex layered textures and secure rapid register changes while projecting orchestral contrasts.
About this piece
- Collection
- At the dance floor
- Licence
- CC0
- Source
- musescore.com
More by Maurice Ravel
- Prélude (1913)Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro
- Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19Level 7, estimatedWith Maestro
- Jeux d’eau, M. 30Level 9, estimatedWith Maestro
