September 2022: the summer had just ended and my first piano book was nearing its end. Full of bitter feelings all tempered by nostalgia, I set myself to a piece that was bound to fall right before the tragic finale of that book, the Sonata No. 3 in C Minor.
In some ways, this waltz is very much a foreshadowing of that sonata. Being in the same key, they are both written out of much the same breed of emotion. C Minor is a very solemn and heavy key. It can as deeply affectionate as it is viciously brooding. While the Sonata largely brings out the brooding quality of this mysterious key, I feel this waltz betrays some of its sighing nostalgic character.
This is not to say that the piece does not also brood. But a curious quality of this work is that the brooding seems more to burst out from the nostalgia than to always run contrary to it. The first and second themes are both alike in that the affectionate song-like quality of each gives unexpected way to a more loud and despairing answer. And while the two characters of this piece sometimes seem at odds with eachother, their interconnectedness betrays that they are born out of much the same spirit.
Thus, in essence, I would say this piece is a lovesick sigh giving way to a growl before dying off as a groan.