This volume contains a pair of works originally written for piano by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) and later orchestrated by him. Conceived as homage to eighteenth-century French music, Le Tombeau de Couperin (Couperin's Tomb) is a four-piece suite consisting of "Prelude," "Forlane," "Menuet," and "Rigaudon." Written between 1914 and 1917, it was dedicated to the composer's close friends who died in World War I.
Valses Nobles et Sentimentales (Elegant and Lyrical Waltzes) pays tribute to the work of Franz Schubert. Composed in 1911 and orchestrated in 1912 to serve as music for the ballet Adélaïde, ou le langage des fleurs (Adelaide, or the language of flowers), these eight uninterrupted waltzes abound in Schubertian characteristics, with their lilting rhythms, rubato, balanced phrases, straightforward form, and unexpected harmonic subtleties.