Guess who dropped a new hit?

[jon-nyc]

Chopin

[Horace]

Strike while the iron is hot.

[jon-nyc]

And Lang Lang performed it in Steinway Hall.

Very compelling piece.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/arts/music/chopin-waltz-discovery.html

[Renauda]

Certainly has a Chopin signature sound and feel; its Polishness is reminiscent of one of the Mazurkas. Beautiful, actually.

Sigh.

[89th]

Wasn't very Waltz-y. Maybe it's an experiment to see if AI can create sheet music from a deceased composer and if the public will believe it.

[George K]

[Horace]

@89th said in Guess who dropped a new hit?:

Wasn't very Waltz-y. Maybe it's an experiment to see if AI can create sheet music from a deceased composer and if the public will believe it.

That crossed my mind too.

[Klaus]

Well, it's better than that POS Mozart released recently.

Also, I understand there are many question marks whether this was actually written by Chopin.

[Horace]

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.)

[Renauda]

Maybe it was a jingle he wrote over drinks with Liszt at one or another soirée.

[kluurs]

I like this performance. It has a mazurka feel to it.

Link to video

[George K]

@kluurs said in Guess who dropped a new hit?:

I like this performance. It has a mazurka feel to it.

Sure does. I love the Chopin Mazurkas.

[kluurs]

I like the piano. I haven’t played a Bechstein in years. The last one I played was too bright. This one sounds decent.