Guess who dropped a new hit?
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And Lang Lang performed it in Steinway Hall.
Very compelling piece.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/arts/music/chopin-waltz-discovery.html
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Link to video
I decided to learn and record the newly-discovered 'Waltz' attributed to Chopin. The media and some scholars are trumpeting this as a landmark discovery of an unknown work of Chopin, but I gather there's still plenty of healthy skepticism among pianists and scholars. While there is consensus that the notated piece is in Chopin's hand, Chopin's name and the title of piece seem to have been added by someone else. It's not even certain that was conceived as a waltz. The work is not signed by Chopin, and it is possible this is the product of a compositional exercise between Chopin and a student. It is also possible that Chopin transcribed somebody else's piece by ear out of curiosity, or for some other unknown purpose. Other oddities have been noted: the triple-forte that is out-of-proportion for such a short work, added fingerings that Chopin used only sparingly, and the 16th-beamed triplets in bars 10, 16, and 19 that should be 8th-triplets.
Even if it is probable that the piece is an original work by Chopin that he simply chose not to develop and tossed aside, it might be wise to withhold judgement until more scholars have examined the evidence and a consensus is reached on the question of its authenticity! For now, the verdict is still out.
Having said that, it is indisputably a charming work, and – now that I've gotten in my fingers and lived with it for a few hours – I can say definitively that it is at least "Chopinesque."
(My current favorite hypothesis is that this is, in fact, "a Chopin," but that it was an inside-joke of some kind composed for a friend that wasn't intended to be taken entirely seriously – that would help explain the triple-forte, and perhaps the fingerings too.)
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I like this performance. It has a mazurka feel to it.
Link to video
