Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 08/12/2015, uploaded on 04/24/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The inspiration for Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales came from two groups of piano pieces Franz Schubert had penned more than 80 years before: the 12 Valses nobles (D.969, published in 1827 as Schubert’s Op. 77) and the 34 Valses sentimentales (D.779, from 1823–24). In both cases the titles were probably invented by the publishers rather than having been suggested by Schubert himself. Nonetheless, they do sum up the spirit of the respective groups of waltzes, which have been cherished through the years more as “private” amusements for the studio or salon than as items for the concert stage.

Valses nobles et sentimentales stands as a seminal work in Ravel’s oeuvre, a distillation of his harmonic practices and his distinctive expression. The work’s lilting rhythms and sharp dissonances seem transparent, yet the simplicity is deceptive; this is the piece that moved Debussy to declare of Ravel: “This is the most subtle ear that can ever have existed”.              Program notes by James M. Keller

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.