Waltz in B minor (Op. 69 No. 2)

Background

Chopin wrote this waltz as a young man, still living in Warsaw; it is usually dated to 1829, when he was nineteen. He never published it. After his death in 1849, his friend Julian Fontana, a pianist who knew his music well, prepared a selection of the unpublished pieces for print with the support of Chopin's family. They appeared from 1855 onwards with opus numbers that Fontana assigned, so "Op. 69" is his label rather than Chopin's. Chopin is said to have wanted his unpublished manuscripts destroyed, which makes it all the more fortunate that this one survived.

Like the waltzes Chopin did publish, it is a concert piece in waltz rhythm rather than music for a ballroom. Its mixture of melancholy and elegance has made it one of the most often played of all his waltzes, and a favourite with pianists who are moving on to Chopin for the first time.

How to practise it

The left hand plays the classic waltz pattern from start to finish: a bass note on beat 1, then a chord on beats 2 and 3.

At 140 beats a minute the jump from bass to chord comes quickly. Practise it looking at the keys at first, then without: play the bass, move at once, and let your fingers settle on the chord before beat 2. Keep beats 2 and 3 lighter than beat 1, so each bar swings as one gesture instead of plodding in three.

The right hand opens with an upbeat F sharp tied over the bar line, followed by a falling line of eighth notes:

Shape each of these phrases like a spoken sentence: lean a little on the G, let the line fall, and relax on the long note at the end.

The waltz is built from three ideas, and it helps to practise each one separately:

• The sighing opening tune in B minor.
• A second tune in a long-short rhythm, a dotted quarter note followed by three eighth notes, which moves into D major.
• A brighter middle section in B major, with running eighth notes that later return doubled in thirds.

After the middle section the opening tune comes back to finish. In this version the repeats are written out, so the first two ideas are heard more than once.

A plan: each hand alone at 80 beats a minute, then hands together at 80, 110 and the full 140. Press the pedal with each bass note and lift it by beat 3, so the chords stay crisp. Keep the left hand steady even when you let the melody linger, because the contrast between a firm beat and a flexible tune is what makes a Chopin waltz breathe.

For a faster, more brilliant Chopin waltz, see the Minute Waltz.