38. Ravel's truck, which he’d christened Adélaïde, then broke down, leaving him to play Robinson Crusoe (as he put it) in the woods for over a week. #Ravel150
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41. Ravel loved mechanical metaphors: new pieces might be ‘en panne’ (broken down); hard at work, he writes ‘Je turbine’. After the War, ‘The magneto’s worn out’; but by the end of 1919 ‘I’ve got La Valse started up at last and I’m in 4th gear!’ #Ravel150
42. Trying to complete La Valse, Ravel travelled to a friend’s house in the Rhône-Alpes, writing, ‘This has got to work: not being able to travel to Vienna, I’ve installed myself close to…Vals!’ #Ravel150
43. Ravel dispatched the manuscript of La Valse to his publishers with the cheery note ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t get lost, I haven’t kept a draft’. #Ravel150
44. Serge #Diaghilev rejected La Valse for his Ballets russes, telling him ‘Ravel, it’s a masterpiece… but it’s not a ballet. It’s the portrait of a ballet… It’s the painting of a ballet.’ #Ravel150
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