Program Notes

Thinking about the waltz as an unexpectedly flexible and diverse musical type generated the final program. The waltz originates in the practical world of communal dance. Schubert’s ineffably refined pieces originate there, and waltz also inhabits the concert music encore world of Kreisler. The appearance of one of the greatest of slow waltzes as the third movement of Schumann’s Piano Quartet (its character confirmed by the composer’s very affirmative tempo recommendation) seemed to make that piece the right punctuation mark.