Op. 69 No. 2, written at nineteen and published only after Chopin’s death. A melancholy waltz that keeps turning back on itself.
The story
Chopin wrote this waltz as a teenager in Warsaw, before he left Poland for good. He never published it.
His friend Julian Fontana gathered it with other unpublished pieces and printed them in 1855, six years after Chopin died.
Two things to know
- The opus number was given after his death, so it says nothing about when he wrote it.
- A brighter section in B major gives a moment of relief before the minor theme comes back.
How to play it
Lean slightly on the first beat of each bar, as dancers would, and let the melody breathe at the end of each phrase.