First performed in 1920, today’s choice was subtitled ‘poème chorégraphique pour orchestre’, and was originally a ballet although now more usually performed in concert. Commentators have referred to it as the most unexpected of Ravel’s compositions. Others have tried to link it to the state of Vienna after the First World War, but Ravel denied that.
Ravel described it as follows:
“You know my intense attraction to these wonderful rhythms and that I value the joie de vivre expressed in the dance much more deeply than Franckist puritanism … Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855.”
A good description of how the work unfolds can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse#Description
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