Chopin, Waltz op 70 No 3

The three waltzes grouped in opus 70 are posthumous. They were published in Berlin in 1855, six years after Chopin's death. The decision was made by his friend and pianist Julian Fontana (a Pole of Italian origin), after consultation with Chopin's mother and his sister Ludwika. The last of them, No. 3, is actually the first of the three that he composed. And it was not far from being marked as the first waltz of all his work in the genre, since it is only preceded by the two waltzes of opus 69, from 1827.

Waltz opus 70 No 3, in D-flat major

It was composed in 1829, when Chopin was back in Warsaw after his first trip to Vienna. At that time, Chopin seemed to be in love with a fellow student at the Warsaw Conservatory. In a letter to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, he points out that in this waltz he evokes "a charming being". Chopin does not give names because "...I know that it is not necessary to draw your attention to that detail: you will feel it yourself," he confesses.

Konstancja 

The charming being is Miss Konstancja Gladkowska, a singing student, who will appear repeatedly in the correspondence that the young master maintains with his friend Tytus. He will tell him, for example, that he has been her piano accompanist. Later, he will confess that the Adagio of the Concerto No. 2 (chronologically, the first) was inspired by his charming fellow student.

A simple piece

Although "deliciously polyphonic" according to scholars, the piece is rather simple. With an A-B-A structure (a first theme, second, return to the first), it presents no major technical difficulties, other than a couple of left-hand trills, which demand a sonority as elegant as it is substantial.

The rendition is by Martin Leung, an American pianist born in Hong Kong.
A delicious two-minute a half of music.