Seventeen? Many old scores say there are fourteen Chopin waltzes, but five more have come to light since the days of ‘fourteen.’ Of these five, one is merely a fragment; Chopin marked it only ‘sostenuto,’ and it is not clear if he intended it to be a waltz. And a second one feels awkward to play and sounds more like Schubert than Chopin—the famous Chopin scholar Jan Ekier declared it to be spurious. So, fourteen plus three is seventeen.
Among the wonderful works of Frédéric Chopin, the waltzes have always had a special place for me. They were meant by Chopin to be concert pieces, not for dancing—though many of them can be danced, especially when played at a moderate tempo. Full of imagination, these waltzes are a delightful mixture of energy, playfulness, and tenderness.