Berlin, 1 November 2024. Exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist Lang Lang has made the world premiere recording of a newly unearthed 200-year-old waltz, believed to be the work of the great Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49). The Yellow Label is delighted to announce that it will release the Waltz in A minor “Found in New York” – premiered by Lang Lang on 27 October in New York – as a digital single on Friday 8 November.

As reported by The New York Times, the manuscript bearing the waltz was discovered by curator Robinson McClellan while he was cataloguing a collection of memorabilia bequeathed to the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. The music, in tiny notation, appears on a piece of paper the size of an index card (10x12cm), is headed “Valse”, and has the name “Chopin” at the top of the page (this is not the composer’s signature, but an addition by another hand). Having carried out comprehensive tests on the paper and ink, analysed the penmanship and musical style, and worked closely with Chopin specialists, the Morgan believes the work to be, in all likelihood, a previously unknown waltz by the composer, written in around 1830–35.

Chopin composed waltzes throughout his career. Notable for their elegance and refinement, and brimming with invention, they redefined the notion of the “salon piece”. Many of them display contrasting moods, from whirling energy to melancholy reflection. The “Found in New York” Waltz, in A minor, is just 48 bars long and starts in darkly dramatic style, with soft, dissonant notes exploding into stormy chords. As Dr Artur Szklener, Director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute observes, “the piece has features of the brilliant style, which agrees with the indicated possible time of composition”.

This Chopin release follows hot on the heels of DG’s recent trio of world premiere recordings of “A Very Little Night Music”, a rediscovered work by Mozart. The previously unknown Serenade in C major, K 648, was discovered by researchers from the International Mozarteum Foundation in the Carl Ferdinand Becker collection of the Municipal Music Library in Leipzig. Consisting of seven miniature movements for string trio, it was introduced to the public on 19 September 2024 by the International Mozarteum Foundation. Deutsche Grammophon issued three different interpretations of the work last month: a version for two violins, cello and harpsichord, a second for two violins, double bass and harpsichord, and  an orchestral adaptation.