Performance And Interpretation Of Ravel’s "Valses Nobles Et Sentimentales"

French composer Maurice Ravel(1875-1937)was one of the leading impressionist musicians and wrote a large number of outstanding works for piano and orchestra during his lifetime.The piano work Valses nobles et sentimentalesl was written and first performed in 1911,and the following year Ravel adapted it for orchestra and performed it in Paris as a ballet score.Inspired by Schubert’s Ballades for piano,the work consists of eight short,compact and varied ballades.In this article,we look at the period and context of the work,analyse the harmonic,stylistic,rhythmic and melodic features of the work,and focus on the timbre of the work in the context of the orchestral version,in order to provide a positive reference for how the work can be performed on the piano with a ’symphonic’ musical approach.This is a positive reference on how to draw on and integrate the ‘symphonic’ musical thinking in the performance of this work on the piano.The author combines his own experiences and perceptions of the work with his theoretical knowledge to help people understand and perform it better.