First Blog

Finally got down to setting up a blog of sorts after being mildly inspired by some friends. Wonder how much real content I'll be able to get down here, since after all, I only get out once a week.

The quote I have as a subtitle to the blog, ". . . le plaisir délicieux et toujours nouveau d'une occupation inutile", is from Henri de Régnier, which translates as " . . . the delicious and ever-changing pleasure of a useless occupation". While the veracity of such a statement is dubious, especially in the current context of my life :), it is ever so poignant as the superscription on Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.

I think Ravel's Valses is one of the supreme examples of what I find to be the greatest trait in Ravel's music - to hide intense expression behind his carefully executed music. This tension, this irony between expressive outpouring and the restraint in compositional style creates the stylized reflection of emotions, filtered through musical lenses, rather than exposing the raw emotions themselves. In addition, the Valses have all the hallmarks of the late Ravel style - complex harmony coupled with greater transparency and economy of expression, and always, the unceasing melodic invention.

The Valses is Ravel's homage to the Viennese waltz and its "delicious and ever-changing pleasures". However, this is peering at the waltz through 20th century eyes, reducing the waltz to something of an anachronism. The glitter and excess of the waltz become mere decadence in the light of the events in the early 20th century, but there's always a feeling of nostalgia looking back at those carefree days. Within this overarching mood of the work, the individual waltzes are diverse in nature, from confident, to tentative, to brash, to dreamy, to quirky, but always tinged with this autumnal nostalgia.

For me, the jewel of the Valses is the dream-like Epilogue, where fragments from the previous seven waltzes are reintroduced in succession in a way that only Ravel could have done. The masterstroke comes when the fragment from the sixth waltz (Assez vif) gives way to the melancholic theme from the third waltz (Modere), which I feel is one of the most achingly beautiful moments of all music. I also really love the way the Epilogue ends with the harmonic vapour dissolving over the G pedal.

Mercifully, this is one of Ravel's less technically challenging pieces, hence I've had the privilege of learning it a few years back. Really love Ravel and wish I could play more of his music, but I think much of Mirroirs and Gaspard de la Nuit remains out of my reach. Sigh.