Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The tone and mood of Ravel’s La Valse has often been a topic of discussion since its composition and premiere in a post-Great War world. Ravel himself declared that the infamous waltz was not envisioned as a dance of death, but the destructive and sinister nature of the work suggests otherwise to some—“It is a dancing, whirling, almost hallucinatory ecstasy, an increasingly passionate and exhausting whirlwind of dancers, who are overcome and exhilarated by nothing but ‘the waltz,’” said Ravel. Dalia Stasevska leads the dramatic piece May 9–11 in Marian Anderson Hall in honor of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The tone and mood of Ravel’s La Valse has often been a topic of discussion since its composition and premiere in a post-Great War world. Ravel himself declared that the infamous waltz was not envisioned as a dance of death, but the destructive and sinister nature of the work suggests otherwise to some—“It is a dancing, whirling, almost hallucinatory ecstasy, an increasingly passionate and exhausting whirlwind of dancers, who are overcome and exhilarated by nothing but ‘the waltz,’” said Ravel. Dalia Stasevska leads the dramatic piece May 9–11 in Marian Anderson Hall in honor of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
