Symphony No. 3 Eroica | Valses nobles et sentimentales

It was Beethoven’s original intention that his third symphony should be entitled “Bonaparte”, in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. But when Napoleon crowned himself ‘Emperor’ he became, in Beethoven’s eyes, “only another tyrannical despot”. Beethoven finally named it “Sinfonia Eroica” (Italian for Heroic Symphony) “composed in honour of a great man”. From its title, in which two Waltz cycles by Schubert are mentioned (Valses Nobles and Valses Sentimentales), it is clear that it was Ravel’s intention to compose a sequence of waltzes based on Schubert, Like many of Ravel’s works, it was first written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer.