Ravel’s La Valse

[blastzit]

I’ve been learning Ravel’s La Valse for solo piano for a while now, but it is full of impossible parts (as in, you can’t possibly play all the notes regardless of technique), since I’m pretty sure Ravel planned for this to be an orchestral piece, and this is just his transcription before he orchestrated it (not an expert here, correct me if I’m wrong).

My question is, how do I decide what to play in those bits? I watched some recordings but it is not entirely clear and everyone seems to be doing something different, and miss out notes here and there. Is there an edition somewhere out there with suitable edits so that it is actually playable? I also find it especially hard and slightly annoying to read in my edition when there is a chromatic line written on top of the two staves but that line is in the middle of the two hands.

[lelle]

Are there any parts you consider impossible apart from the parts with an added stave? Can you post a screenshot?

I interpret the added staves as Ravel going "this should be here but I know it is or may not be playable like this, figure something out that makes it sound like this stuff is here if possible". Some of those spots are playable but would be terrible hard to read if he squeezed everything in on the same stave.

[thorn]

I think most professional pianists make their own arrangements of this piece, though don't publish scores. The two published versions I know of beyond Ravel's are these:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/63789031/M-ravel-Icharev-La-Valse-Piano
https://gryaznoff.com/works/unpublished/ravel-la-valse

Whatever the version this isn't an easy piece. But you can do a bit of cut/pasting, like Icharev's version notates the middle chromatic line you're talking about so it's playable between the hands. So for example you could play the original Ravel version, then switch to Icharev for those particular bars. Creating a satisfactory arrangement is part of the challenge of this piece.