Hyperion Records

With its opening fanfares the Waltz in A flat major Op 34 No 1 immediately recalls the ballroom, where its main theme, though harmonized in sixths, is clearly happy to be. One of the longest of Chopin’s waltzes, it develops a glitteringly scored episode from the fanfare before modulating to D flat major for a dreamy middle section, itself extensive enough to assume its own ternary form. The A flat material is recalled to be succeeded by a coda which seems to signal a conventionally brilliant exit but which actually proceeds to a subtly allusive ending.

from notes by Gerald Larner © 2009