LDV104

18 BALLETS These ballets tell stories. The story of Petrushka , which features puppets, is very picturesque and theatrical. But what is the Valses nobles et sentimentales about? It was originally composed for the piano as a tribute to Schubert’s thirty-four Valses Sentimentales and twelve Valses Nobles , and forms a succession of eight distinct tableaux that follow one another without transitions. At the request of the dancer Natalia Trouhanowa, Ravel orchestrated them to serve as music for a ballet, devising a scenario himself and giving them a new title, charming, poetic, brimful of flavours and scents: Adélaïde ou le langage des fleurs . It depicts the games of seduction between a courtesan, Adélaïde, and her two suitors, Lorédan and a duke. Each waltz is associated with a flower and its symbolism: tuberose, buttercup, sunflower, acacia, poppy, red rose. Ravel had already anticipated all the colours of the orchestra when he composed the piece for the piano, as his annotations reveal. I tried to recreate the atmosphere of the ballet through the narrative and the evocations of the orchestral version and its scenario. I wanted my listeners to imagine the dance.