Frédérik Chopin composed his first waltz when he was 19 years old. In total, between 1829 and 1847 he composed fourteen waltzes, six of which were published only after his death.
Naturally, or so it seems now, these pieces are not made to be danced, but that was not so clear in the first half of the nineteenth century. And Chopin had to make it explicit, demanding that "they were not danced, because they are not intended for it," he notes in a letter to one of his editors.
Nor did he like they were considered "lounge music." And with good reason, since it is useless to look in Chopin's waltzes for the charm of the Viennese waltzes. During his stay in Vienna, he said in a letter to a friend "I don't have anything it takes to imitate Strauss or Lanner."
However, the pianist, director and great Franco-Swiss pedagogue Alfred Cortot (1877 - 1962) manages to distinguish three styles in this long series of waltzes that get through almost all of Frédérik's musical existence.
There are the "allusive" waltzes in which the musical form languishes before the poetry they contain; the waltzes that oh, surprise! Cortot himself calls "lounge waltzes" with Chopin's forgiveness, destined to the listeners' reverie; and, last but not least, the "bright" waltzes that, following Cortot, open the way to the evocation of dance halls where couples spin, vehemently, despite Frédérik's wishes.
Grande Vals Brillante, Opus 18
The Grande Vals Brillante in E-flat (designation of the editor) of Opus 18, is the first to be edited but was composed at least after another five, in Paris, in 1834. It is probably one of the best known and most popular, for the public, and a small jewel suitable for displaying a comfortable show, for pianists. A biographer of Chopin aptly describes it as "piafante" and "tufted". Its conclusion, high brilliant, peaks an accelerando that would leave breathless those who, bold and naive, would think of dancing.
The rendition is by the Russian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.
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