Three Waltzes Op.70

in G flat major, Op.70, No.1 (1832)

in F minor, Op.70, No.2 (1841)

in D flat major, Op.70, No.3 (1829)

None of the three Waltzes that appeared in print as Chopin’s Op.70 in 1855 was actually intended for publication by the composer himself. The earliest waltzes published in his lifetime were the ones in E flat major Op.18 and A minor Op.34 No.2, both of which were written in Vienna in 1831. The Waltz in D flat major Op.70 No.3 dates from as early as 1829, however, and sketches for the G flat major Op.70 No.1 indicate that it was conceived before 1831 even if it was completed later. The Waltz in F minor Op. 70 No.2, while it is certainly a product of Chopin’s high maturity (it was written in 1841 just after the great Fantasia in the same key), it was intended purely for private consumption - as gifts for friends, like Mlle Marie de Krudner, Mme Oury and Mlle Élise Gavard, each of whom was presented with her own manuscript copy bearing a personal inscription. Of the three Op.70 Waltzes, No.1 in G flat is the most brilliant, although it has a more intimately lyrical side to it in the middle section, and No.2 in F minor is the most interesting, not least because of its melancholy mazurka-like demeanour and its spontaneously motivated binary construction. The most romantic, on the other hand, is No.3 in D flat major, which was inspired by the young composer’s love for the singer Konstancja Gladkowska and which betrays a palpably erotic thrill in its chromatic harmonies.