Chopin - Grande Valse Brillante Op.18 in E flat major (Drewnowski)

Chopin Grande Valse Brillante Op.18 in E flat major Marek Drewnowski (Pleyel 1848) The Waltz in E flat major, published as opus 18, is of a profoundly Parisian character, not of the sentimental Viennese variety. It shimmers with the gaiety of elegant society. It was written – ostensibly – in a form consisting of a succession of dance themes – now alike, now incongruous. In essence, however, it is an integral whole, in which one theme passes imperceptibly into another, ends, then returns, building up the drama in grand style. ‘It is a true ballroom picture,’ notes Huneker, ‘spirited and infectious in rhythms.’ Each of the dance themes (there are seven in all) brings a different melodic character and dance motion. The way is led by the opening theme in E flat major, consolidating the rotary waltz step in a distinctive manner (bars 5–16). It is followed by a little theme in A flat major, lively and scherzotic, which acts as a vignette (bars 22–30). The theme in D flat major brings our first breather, a switch from rotary to rocking movement, from leaping to singing (bars 70–78). It also has its lively opposite (bars 86–95). A new singing theme appears, taking the dance to ecstatic raptures (bars 118–134). Its complement is in the purest brillant style: the lively melody is bejewelled with acciaccature (bars 136–144). Just before the end, we hear a fluent, undulating theme (in B flat minor), shrouded in sentimental mist (bars 169–177). The introduction to the E flat major Waltz, barely four bars long and exceedingly simple, was brought in to set the rhythm; it did not portend such an impressively elaborate finale, which is at once also the stretta of the themes presented earlier (bars 243–270). Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’ Source: https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/komp... A series of waltzes one after the other, that in a weird way, talk with each other, that's the way the owner of this channel sees this piece, as if the E flat-major waltz is the one to rule all the others, as all of them seem to have something that was inspired in the first one. Sheet: https://imslp.org/wiki/Grande_valse_b...)