Waltz in A-flat (Op. 39 No. 15)

Background

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) grew up in Hamburg but made Vienna his home from the 1860s, and the city's favourite dance found its way into his music. In 1865 he wrote sixteen short waltzes for piano duet, published the next year as his Op. 39 and dedicated to the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, one of his strongest supporters. They are intimate music for the home, closer to Schubert's dances than to ballroom showpieces.

Brahms also arranged the set for solo piano, in a harder and a simplified version, changing the keys of some waltzes along the way. This one is No. 15. In the original duet it is in A major; in the harder solo version Brahms moved it to A-flat major, the key used here. It has become the best-known waltz of the set and is often played on its own.

How to practise it

This arrangement is in A-flat major (four flats: B, E, A and D) and 3/4 time, 44 bars long. An eight-bar tune is played twice (bars 1 to 16). A fuller middle part (bars 17 to 22) leads back to the tune (bars 23 to 30), the middle part comes again (bars 31 to 36), and the last eight bars bring the tune back high, with quick triplets climbing between its notes.

The right hand plays the tune on top of sixths:

Practise the top line alone first, with the fingers you will use in the sixths (usually 5 or 4), and sing it. Then add the lower notes lightly with the thumb. The tune should sound like one smooth voice, even though the thumb has to jump.

The left hand is the classic waltz pattern:

Practise the jump from bass note to chord as a pair, eyes on the landing, then add the second chord. In bar 2 the bass drops an octave lower, so the jump is bigger. A few left-hand chords (bars 5 to 7 and their repeats) stretch to a tenth; if you cannot reach, spread the chord very quickly from the bottom up, or leave out its top note.

Two more spots need care. In bar 3 a little turn (D flat, E flat, D flat) decorates the tune while the lower notes are held. In the final section the triplets leap through sixths from middle C to two octaves above it: learn them as hand positions first, playing each sixth as a block.

Tempo ladder: 60, 76, 92, then 104. A little pedal helps, changed on each first beat with the bass note.

Listen for the lilt: a warm bass on beat 1, feather-light chords on 2 and 3, and the tune singing over the top. Let the music breathe slightly at the end of each phrase.

The hands-apart, short-section method used here is described in how to practise piano.