Classical Music | Piano Music

Frédéric Chopin

Waltz op. 69, no. 1  Play

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Piano

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 05/24/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

 

Waltz in A-flat major

The first waltz of opus 69 is actually contemporaneous with the timespan of opus 34. Composed in 1835, it was parting gift to Marie Wodzinka when Chopin left Dresden to return to Paris. Chopin had fallen in love with Marie and even proposed to her. However, his being a poor musician, Marie’s parents outright rejected the possibility of a union between the two. Thus, the waltz is occasionally referred to by its nickname, “L’adieu.”

Like the latter two waltzes of opus 34, this A-flat major piece displays Chopin’s already notable progression away from the strict Viennese dance he had attempted to emulate and towards a stylized form more suitable to poetic expression. In this case, Chopin adopts a slower tempo, much as he did with the A minor waltz of that set. The principal theme, marked con espressione, is heavily tinted by the colors of the relative minor (occasionally leading some to consider the piece in F minor rather than A-flat major, yet certainly obscuring the dividing line between the two closely related tonalities), and its poignant sighs follow closely the plaintive stepwise motion of the chromatic bass. It becomes a sort of refrain throughout the piece, framing the statements of two subsidiary ideas, and giving the piece a rondo-like form.

The first episode ventures into the key of E-flat major. Marked con anima, its theme is somewhat more cheery, dancing about the dominant with playful turns and skipping arpeggio. Besides its livelier demeanor, it also borrows the characteristic accent of the third beat from the mazurka. The second episode, on the other hand, separated from the first by a brief restatement of the principal theme, is more reflective. Fully in the key of A-flat major and marked dolce, it seems to dwell on pleasant memories of the past. It is interrupted twice by an earnest, chordal passage that climbs chromatically through the A-flat major scale to close on a half cadence. Finally, without transition, the principal theme returns following the close of the second episode to conclude the waltz.     Joseph DuBose

Recorded in 1962

courtesy of YouTube