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Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor Op 64 No 2 was composed in 1847 and sits nicely between the sparkling No 1 in D flat (‘Minute’) and the lilting No 3 in A flat. It was written for Madame la Baronne Nathaniel de Rothschild – a painter, a friend of the composer and a member of the prominent banking family. Other Chopin pieces in C sharp minor include the Etude Op 10 No 4, Nocturnes Op 27 No 1 and the Op posth No 20, and Scherzo No 3. Published in 1847, the Waltz was one of the last pieces to be published during Chopin’s lifetime, alongside the Sonata for Cello and Piano Op 65.
Consisting of three sections in ABCBAB form, it contains four general defining technical features within:
• a leaping LH with the lower bass note often on the first beat of the bar (in the A section)
• a two-part
