Friday 9 December 2011
Tune of the Day: Valse brillante in A minor
by Frédéric Chopin, transcribed for solo flute
This waltz is taken from a collection of Trois valses brillantes, first published in 1838. The title “Valse brillante”, however, hardly seems appropriate for such a melancholy, subdued work.
The composer Stephen Heller related that Chopin called this slow (Lento) waltz his favorite. When Heller told the Pole that he, too, loved it best, Chopin immediately invited him for lunch at a fashionable café. Frederick Niecks wrote of this piece, “The composer evidently found pleasure in giving way to this delicious languor, in indulging in these melancholy thoughts full of sweetest, tenderest loving and longing.”