Both waltzes of the Op.69 set are well known and loved by amateur pianists, partly because they are relatively easy to play. The first one, in A flat major, was written in 1835 and was left as a parting gift to Maria Wodinska, a Polish artist living in Dresden, Germany, with whom Chopin was engaged to be married. Her parents forbade the marriage, possibly on the grounds of Chopin’s health, but, equally likely, for misgivings about the composer’s insecure financial situation and promiscuous reputation. The waltz has since been given the subtitle L’Adieu or Farewell Waltz. The second waltz, in B minor, was written six years earlier when the composer was nineteen, but such was the maturity he reached at a prodigiously early age as both a pianist and a composer, the listener would be hard-pressed to tell! The opening idea is serious and thoughtful, its sophisticated, balanced phrases recalling the earlier classical period. This is, again, contrasted by two more light-hearted sections. The first starts in the relative major but soon works its way back to the minor key and a more chromatic, almost bitter and insistent variant on the opening idea. The second contrasting section is in the tonic major and is charming and delightful, but with the return of the first idea the mood darkens again. Peter Lawson
- ISMN: 9790222331723 (M222331723)
