Waltz in C sharp minor Op.64 No.2 (1847)

Waltz in A flat major Op.34 No.1 (1835)

While acknowledging the influence of Aufforderung zum Tanz on Chopin’s waltzes, Chopin scholars tend to be dismissive of its “pot–pourri” costruction. Weber’s little masterpiece in D flat major is not only carefully integrated, however, but also more sustained than any of Chopin’s waltzes: it is half as long again as the most extended and more than twice as long as the majority of them.

Where Chopin wins hands down of course is in his creation of what Schumann described as “waltzes for souls much more than waltzes for bodies.” There is no better example than one of his very last works, the Waltz in C sharp minor Op.64 No.2. If it is still a waltz for the body it is for a soulful and solitary one that moves with a pathetic little skip between the sighing parallel sixths of its main theme and then twists away in a nostalgic pirouette. The melodiously expressive middle section – approached by a run of quavers that has the function of a recurring refrain – is harmonised in D flat major but is scarcely less poignant than the C sharp minor episodes on either side of it.

With its opening fanfares the Waltz in A flat Op.34 No.1 immediately recalls the ballroom, where its main theme, though harmonised in sixths like that of Op.64 No.2, is clearly happy to be. The longest of Chopin’s waltzes, it develops a glitteringly scored episode from the fanfare before modulating to D flat major for a dreamy middle section, itself extensive enough to assume its own ternary form. The A flat material is recalled to be succeeded by a coda which seems to signal a conventionally brilliant exit but which actually proceeds to a subtly allusive ending.