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Brahms Waltz Op 39 No 15

At the New Year’s Eve party my family has been attending for the last … oh, at least 20 years, we have a tradition of doing waltzes. By “doing,” I don’t much mean dancing — sadly, only a few brave souls do that — but playing them, since it’s a musical crowd and it’s easy to form a pickup group. (It’s another instance of the sort of informal playing together, not playing for, that I wrote about in Comparing Notes.) Waltzes for the new year are a tradition our hosts imported from Austria, and one I’m now importing from their party to my blog.

OK, you caught me, I already posted one recording for the new year. So now I’ve posted two!

Waltz Op 39 No 15 (in A flat major)

This isn’t quite as polished and unique as the previous Brahms recording I posted, I’m afraid, but I hope you’ll overlook that and enjoy the piece. It’s a wonderful little masterpiece of sophisticated simplicity.

Comments

Jeff

Thank you .. oh thank you for this lovely playing of my favourite Brahms Waltz! The playing is warm, and rather thoughtful, although I feel you might give it more feelings/emotions at the climax. The tempo could be just a little bit faster too, although that would create a different mood altogether I guess!

Jeff
Mike DuCharme

Oh, that was so lovely that it almost brought a tear to my eye. I’m learning an abridged version of the piece, and looking forward to the time when I’m accomplished enough to play the original.

Mike DuCharme
Anne L.

Thanks for this beautiful piece. It is one of my favorite piece by Brahms, and your version is warm and sweet.

Anne L.
Abdul-Walid

Oh joy! What joy!!

Brahms is my favorite composer, and it’s as much for works like the fourth symphony as it is for a little slice of heaven-pie like this one.

Blue

Thanks. I love this piece.

Blue
Elle

Thanks from Spain Paul¡ :D…I loved your version…Hopefully it will help me to learn the simplified version I am studying. In any case, will enjoy listening to it.

Elle
Ben

This excellent recording inspired me to learn the piece. I enjoyed it very much, thank you.

Ben
Stephanie

Thanks for this recording, I heard this song first in a tv commercial and was looking for it on the internet, however nowadays you can’t find that much any more :)
Anyway this recording is very beautiful! Really a great performance!

Stephanie
Hazel

Paul - this is so beautiful. I am an adult taking piano lessons, was assigned the piece, and could not “hear” it. Thanks to your website it helped pull me through.

Hazel
tammy

its nice..hrm.. my friends playing it.. and thanks for uploading it

tammy
Cristina

Thanks for your posting. I enjoyed the waltz very much.

Cristina
erica

love this one!

watch tamara rojo perform to this song in “isadora duncan”, its beautiful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvy-p4ljISU

erica
Mo  CHAN

It’s so difficult to locate a recording of this piece. I am learning to play this but the spread chord is the most challenging task for me. I very much hope to make it. But it takes time. Your playing is a good demonstration for me.

Mo CHAN
aday

so nice the music…
i love piano~

roy

very good

roy
bill

so cool and fun to listen to . I want to listen to it every day

bill
Brigitte

I listen to this piece very often and it makes me cry every time…It is so beautiful! Thank you for posting it!

Brigitte
nancy zl

Thank you for posting this - just soo lovely, may try to
learn this in a simple version. thanks !!

nancy zl
Anqi

I like this piece very much. Thank you for playing it.

Anqi
Jim

I stumbled across this entry while checking information about Brahms and verifying this very waltz, which is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. I discovered this waltz, the ballads and intermezzi - along with a lot more - one summer in college. I had no job and nothing to do so I went to the library and checked out - on a whim - every Brahms recording they had, which was a lot. Then spent the summer listening to all of it repeatedly and reading the great biography by Geiringer. Thanks for including this waltz.

Jim
lindsay

what form is the waltz in? (binary or ternary?) just wondering! but i need to know, thank you

lindsay
emily

I loved the way you voice the top tone in the right hand.
I think you could use for of a dynamic contrast during the climax of the piece
but over all i enjoyed listening to it.

emily
Veritobaoo

someone has the piano sheetmusic of this melody??? i mean op. 39 no 15??

Veritobaoo
Janice

Exquisite…………..my favorite piece!

Janice
Betty

That is soooo beautiful. I didn’t know what the title was until I searched my majahong game. It is one of the midis that plays while you play the game. I wish that I could play a piano, it would defineatly be a piece I would want to learn.
Thanks so much for sharing it with the world.

Betty
lorraine tearle

Found this by chance and thoroughly enjoyed the playing and music. Beautiful.

lorraine tearle
lorraine tearle

Love this piece and am trying to play it.

lorraine tearle