F. Chopin - Waltz in E-flat major Op. 18- Analysis. Greg Niemczuk's lecture. 

I've studied on a couple of different music schools and conservatoires and also had some private teachers besides watching masterclasses on RU-vid and reading books and articles about F. Chopin but I've never heard the kinds of things you tell. And the way you play the piano and talk, with all these feelings and emotions is really amazing. Your lectures are fantastic!

I was introduced to Chopin's waltzes when I was a pre-teen at 11. I was lucky to get the Rubinstein recording and immediately started learning them, even though I wasn't ready to play them. Thank you for your wonderful analysis.

I love your commnetaries. It helps me to play better with those jokes and stories in mind! Thank you.

To me, this is one of Chopin's truest-to-life songs, if not THE one about his life, then love life, then the end. He was in the 3rd to 4th quarter of his life already when he wrote this at 23. He died at 39. There's either something divine coming thru this song, like fortelling. Or, the end or "death" part of the song, as I will describe it, could just symbolize the end of love. I think he put all the stages of his life in it, from the announcement of birth with that lead in getting everyone's attention that he has arrived, spilling into a very child-like essence to the melody and how the notes roll up and tumble down. Then we hit the ground running with the second part, like when we finally learn to walk, then run and jump into life with a burst of energy, young and fearless. It's fast because this is the time in life where we live fastest, thinking nothing can stop us! I feel the next part is his deepening into love, with those thrice-struck A-flats, almost signaling and flagging something before the beauty. His meeting of his love? He enters despite the flags and warnings these notes prelude, yet he dances, which we all know he entered into a volatile relationship, but it begins elegant and gracefully, a step down from the previous carelessness and now a more refined, classy step into maturity, leading to an inevitable shock. BANG! The thrilling interruption and accented next part, almost sounds like an era of discovery, and possibly not all the good, but also the bad parts, of love, until things reach a boiling point- it's clearly an indication of distraction and losing focus. The song next here hints that cooler minds prevailed during those first struggles, as softly and elegantly they return, the lovers falling deeper in one of those possibly toxic relationships, and rejoicing he Waltzes back to how everything was and used to be, almost like a hope to forget the shocking hiccup, and just trying to regain those first lover's days and attraction. The song all throughout has a recurring theme of 'same old over and over, up and downs' if you notice, of having and losing, of order followed by deterioration followed by regaining some kind of order again as 'before'. Now onward and forward he says! Older Chopin. Professional Chopin. Brightest, most waltziest parts in my opinion. Marching vibes, with a sense of triumph, we enter an almost authoritative galloping of views in the next section, as if Chopin was almost saying HE is the authority, he knows best and is old enough, and at a stage in love where he might be overbearing, exhausting even, like the marching triumphant accents of this part. The tone is very 'one-sided' but NOTICE we hear all these views in "twos" all thruout the piece, as if the lower part is HIS views and HIS ways, then the softer higher octaves doing the same things representing perhaps HER ways, HER contributions, almost like questions and answers, or two very different people's futile trying to agree on the same thing. HERS more feminine, HIS deeper and more masculine. It feels like a disagreement, even though the melody is the same just in different octaves. The only thing "same" is their very opposite views of how things should be, 1 goal but sadly 2 very different outlooks. Him more authoritative and possessive. Her more free and delicate. They can't see eye to eye which is why this next part is the wildest, most out of character parts yet! I feel something very bad happened here, yet he will naively forget in later parts. It seems the slamming of the fist, the raising of the eyebrow to one another only leads him to the complete unraveling of his relationship, with the most "off" part, an almost dark, laughing-like melody, perhaps where he was in this stage he thought life was mocking him. Two keys always struck at the same time, like yelling and talking over one another! This part is scary, it's disorienting, it's different, maybe one of those moments when the pair split up and he thought it was over for good, as it sounds like sinking into madness! Like fear that he will not find the same love again, desperation as he heard rumors and imagined his ex-love-of-his-life prancing up and around town, laughing and dancing the night away while Chopin hurt, jealous, and was in a very dark place. His ex moving on is what some of those notes sound like, since he adds a touch of what feels like laughing, possibly him feeling betrayed by being made to feel like joke. This part almost feels like a well-wrapped ball of yarn just unravelling and tangling itself up into an impossible, un-tieable knot- the end of his love life. But Alas! We hear the triumphant part again, and it is written almost like a firm return, possibly Chopin displaying his unbending character and unwillingness to be the one to give up or give in - a defiant stance to rejection, or a narcissistic repreteur of heart and mind falling into its old ways again. Is this where he re-conquers his ex lover, and they get back together, but almost by force, for this authoritative, and lowest of notes so far, part of the piece seems like he marches right back to his lover, with confidence and convincing arguments, tries to win her back. But we are met yet AGAIN a 2nd time by the mocking melody, the laughing harmonies, the strange and almost eerie phrasing in this part. Chopin perhaps learned that his ex lover is immovable, and that he indeed is abandoned, since in this next part we have the next big change in mood. An almost loungey, sad slow questioning of life. It sounds like one of those long walks we take to clear our minds when it's just us and nobody else. A ponderous 'why' and an affirming 'because' while down on his luck, but just like we are about to hear, Chopin re-aligns himself and says 'life goes on' with the next phrase, a mix of the past and present, yet decaying, decaying, decaying, like his health, and then we hear the beginning of the song again. This is Chopin's second chance at life, he thinks. Seems like he almost said, "To hell with this! Life goes on! Let's get on with it and stop wallowing in our sadness, for life is too short!" He continues on, happy, perky just like the first time around at the beginning of the song, perhaps also an ode to reconciliation, remembering to stop and smell the roses, to be childish through felicity. Suddenly we are off and running again, with that rolling into that most-repeated fingering notes, "could this be and will this all work out?" he proposes. Possibly naive after a reconciliation that everything could go "back to how it was in the start of the relationship" leading back to the start yet once more....until....wait a minute he says, he does not finish it. We hear chords that sound like we are now waiting in a queue, until the swirling arpeggios take hold, everything begins to unravel again! But there is something different this time. We approach the end, and keep in mind 'death' here could signify the death of love and not necessarily his own mortal death, as he was still 15 short years still away from dying. We reach that last part! Those repetitive notes again, with reports, are memories, they are thumping though, and they sound furious, perhaps regret? Reminders driving him into whirling madness. Remorse? Feeling of not having been fulfilled. You hear this part...it's very reflecting with the 'dah dah dah dah dah' followed by hints of that laughing double-strike part from earlier (waltz 3 phrase 2 as mentioned in video at 25:00 ) , as a reminder to not take it too seriously even towards this stage, and even though you may not be the same, yet somehow you still are in many ways the same, like in the song's familiarities to earlier parts, just played in a different way. It's almost like adjusting, calibrating, reminisce. A new love? He did dedicate this to his pupil, a woman. As we will see, he falls to his old ways the same melody but in a different key! He desperately grasps at the life he wants slipping away, trying to force it into his way, and while it looks and feels the same to him, or so he wants to believe, it is definitely not the same anymore and he cannot mold it and surrenders to this "other" way; like the other way of playing the melody. At this point in the timeline, something seems more serious, perhaps real fear and Chopin faces his solitude, his mortality, but "nevermind" he says and tries to force himself to feeling like in the beginning again, and we hear the beginnings of the song but played in other keys. He is not himself no more, but still alive trying to just put one foot in front of the other, perhaps trying to not think of his illness and the inevitable, but soon the bells toll. After this frenzy of questions, as the answers go higher and higher, they sound pleasant again, with an air of cheeriness, and now it's the climax of everything, the culmination of it all, his life from start to finish, and in the end....after the love, the dances, the ups and downs, and now an ascension begin as we head up, and higher and higher, and here Chopin sees the light, the lightest softest of notes slow down and are written to be played almost like a heart beating getting fainter and fainter, as it quiets down during that bright final moment....and we hear the final Forte accents... BEENG! BAAMBAAMBAAM! BOOM! The Final Curtain. To me this is the song - happiness, sadness, ups and downs, and then it's over, but SO beautiful. It's the truest representation of life, in music form, and one of the best I have ever heard of the human condition.

Excellent explanation of why Chopin decided to write Waltz, and how the familiar jokes are inserted to please the aristocrats. Chopin was even a smart salesman!

Thankyou! This is my favorite waltz because there are so many different characters and moods in it! Instead of having to play many waltzes to convey many different moods, Chopin puts all the moods into one package for us

Great introduction to Chopin’s first waltz. The imagery of entering different rooms in an aristocratic house is very appropriate, and the jokes we found in each waltz. And how Chopin ingeniously quoted several waltzes in the coda. Thank you for your analysis

This waltz works wonderfully as an encore piece. I played it as the finale of my university senior piano recital to thunderous applause.

Oh my God. I played this in my teenage years thinking it was a piece of extremely fun (and funny!) music, although I did not have in mind the aristocratic house imagery you alluded to here. I just cannot play it without a smile on my face! Now it all makes sense... I heard a lot of pianists playing this piece very elegantly these days, but many are missing the fun and the jokes :) Thank you for making these great videos as always!! I am just so glad that I found your channel...

Thanks for this wonderful analysis, hugely entertaining!

thank you for sharing so much!

👏 👏 👏 👏 Best regards, Georgios Marinakis, Istanbul, Turkey :)

Thank you very much for these insights. Chopin is by far my favorite composer and this Waltz (with uppercase) is definely my favorite piece.

Fantastiq, Interpretation F. Chopin Greg. Niemczuk's .

Gran canal

Danke!

Awesome analysis as always Mr. Niemczuk, for months on end I’ve been longing to find that waltz from 2:50

After the angry-kid-chasing-phrase, it's Waltz-3, Phrase-2: Omg, just so Gorgeous. Ahh! _"FALSE NOTES,"_ Nice. 🙂 Before, all I could think to describe it as was: _"It's like the precision of an engineer through a kid smashing keys on a piano"_

This is huge

17:36 That explains why this Waltz goes so well with Tom & Jerry

I really enjoyed ! you recommend op18 grand waltz at op19 bolero. 🤔op16 rondo op17 mazurka op22 spianate They are very intresting way to study Chopin ! thank you,Greg❣️

Greg ... you offer lessons in English in EN and ES ... but I'm guessing you speak UKR..? Or Polish..?

I'm an early intermediate adult amateur player, and haven't played Chopin yet. Can you recommended a couple easier chopin piece that you have tutorials for me? thanks!

Good morning

what is the name of this waltz(2:50)

ok

How do you pronounce your name? Hello from California!🙋🏻‍♀️🎼🎵🎶

Ciekawie opowiadasz Grzegorzu, niewielkie zmiany w wymowie określonych elementów angielskiego wziosłyby przekaz na dużo wyższy poziom, językowo.