5 ms·
This is genuinely a good waltz. Sometimes, they will discover a lost piece by some known composer, and the media will pick it up. But imo, when you have a list
by odyssey7 2y ago
This is genuinely a good waltz.
Sometimes, they will discover a lost piece by some known composer, and the media will pick it up. But imo, when you have a listen, it often turns out that the piece had been lost for a reason.
What makes this waltz remarkable as a new discovery, in my opinion, is that it is more or less a finished work; the composition is so distinctively a work by Chopin; and the work brings something novel to the oeuvre.
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As for the debut, I think someone involved could have been more thoughtful. It feels as if some people in NYC saw a chance to be the first to debut, and they ran with it. It was published in the NYTimes, with a New York-based pianist, with New York’s “Steinway Hall,” which reads like a product placement. Chopin wrote these intimate pieces for the acoustics of small, intimate settings, and for nothing like a modern Steinway concert grand piano.
Maybe they could have instead worked with some local cultural organization in Poland, which could have made the debut a significant local cultural thing? Maybe taking the chance to promote an early-career pianist from Chopin’s homeland, rather than the career of a world-famous New Yorker?
- gdevic 2y agoAgree. Lang Lang is all about theatrics, also.
- tzs 2y ago> This is genuinely a good waltz I thought that waltzes in classical music were meant to be danced to. Listening to the performance from the Times article, I'm not sure how one would dance to this. I'm not hearing anything that tells me which notes I should be syncing movement to. What makes it a waltz instead of some other form that happens to be in 3/4 time?
- joegahona 2y agoThis pianist is really manipulating the tempo.
- Bud 2y ago[dead]
- odyssey7 2y agoChopin is associated with waltzes and mazurkas, both of which are dance forms in triple meter. A mazurka will emphasize either its measures’ second beats or third beats. This might be kind of difficult to identify in Lang Lang’s interpretation, but a waltz differs from a mazurka by having a more steady tempo and by placing the emphasis on the first beat of each measure, usually matching what you were probably expecting. I’m not sure how many of Chopin’s dance-form pieces were meant for actual dancing, but it is fairly common for composers to write according to stylistic elements of a dance form without intending the work for an actual dance.
- wirrbel 2y agoQuite often you have a sequence. There is a dance that becomes popular, music is composed for dancing and played for dancing. At one point fancy composers use the rhythmic and melodic themes and compose music reminiscent of the dance which cannot be danced anymore. Simple example: tango is a dance. A DJ playing tango music at a tango dance event will only use certain recordings that maintain tempo and don’t confuse the dancers. You can also listen to tango music records that cannot be danced to. Chopins dances usually fall into the “reminiscent of the dance” category. Another classical music example is the minuet. When people danced minuets it was the time of the sun king Louis XIV. When Bach composed minuets they were just a song in 3/4 meter adhering to form. Now that I have established another dance in 3/4, it should be clear that it’s not enough for music to be in 3/4 to qualify as a Waltz. There are various things involved that make a Waltz a Waltz. And in one of the Chopin Waltzes, enough is “fulfilled” in the sense that if you ask a pianist listening to the piece whether they here a Minuet, a Waltz or something else in 3/4 they will probably identify it as a waltz. Pianist here uses a lot of Rubato (slowing down of the tempo), which kind of is assumed to be an innovation from the romantic period. In any case it got popular during that time. But that would be definitely appropriate for a Chopin piece. One could say it’s a historically accurate practice to use rubato here. It would be used a lot less when the musicians played music for a dance in the local village. In any case, classical dances of European music are really interesting and there is a lot to discover throughout the centuries. We tend to assume music got more complex by the century, but if you dive into romantic dances, baroque dances, a lot of interesting rhythms are present, a lot of rhythmic playfulness is there.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Bud 2y ago[dead]
- odyssey7 2y agoUpdate: Here is another interpretation, in which the waltz features are more clearly expressed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36pE68uV-Sk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36pE68uV-Sk
- alkyon 2y agoLang Lang doesn't need further promotion, but still his showmanship is really not in the spirit of Chopin's muisc. I would like to hear an interpretation of it by someone who won International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in the recent years (like Blechacz or Liu for instance).
- eleveriven 2y agoIt would be interesting to see how they might convey the nuances and emotional layers of this newfound waltz
- jakubadamw 2y agoThank you for this comment. > Maybe they could have instead worked with some local cultural organization in Poland, which could have made the debut a significant local cultural thing? I suppose the NYTimes could not be bothered to look for someone to work with in Poland or Europe generally (France would be another option), which is, indeed, a shame. In my home town Kraków we have a wonderful chamber music collective which performs music from this very period on historical piano fortes, so very much the kind of instruments Chopin would play on himself. I contacted them immediately after reading this article and before your comment appeared. I am hopeful we will hear the piece performed by them very soon!
- aziaziazi 2y agoThanks ! Fantastic ! Please share it here when ready !
- jakubadamw 2y agoAnd here it is! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyp4ljKR8_E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyp4ljKR8_E Here it is performed on a square piano from 1835, so just right within the time range which this very waltz is being dated to.
- SubiculumCode 2y agoI agree with you about this piece of music versus other found pieces. It is a sophisticated, hauntingly beautiful waltz...and distinctively Chopin in its nuanced romanticism.
- Upvoter33 2y agoI agree w/ the first part: this is distinctly Chopin and beautiful. Not sure why a critique of the NYT is needed; they wrote a great article and had a great performer perform it. Other "cultural organizations" can do what they wish and will not be harmed by this article (and indeed, may be helped, due to the word getting out).
- jablongo 2y agoI agree, maybe a more conservative performer than Lang Lang would've been good to hear the first run from. Love Lang Lang but he's a bit of an 'innovator' w/ the romantics.
- resize2996 2y agoPlaying at Steinway hall was almost certainly product placement, they've been putting on performances in NYC to promote their brand since 1866.
- eleveriven 2y agoUltimately, it’s about honoring Chopin's legacy while also giving this new work the thoughtful presentation it deserves.