La Valse - Maurice Ravel

'La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre', is written by Maurice Ravel from February 1919 until 1920. It was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work. The work has been described as a tribute to the waltz. Ravel himself described La Valse with the following preface to the score: '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.