Deutsche Grammophon Releases Lang Lang’s World Premiere Recording of Long-Lost Chopin Waltz

The Waltz in A minor “Found in New York” (2024 World Premiere Recording)
will be released on 8 November 2024 – listen to it here.

“This is not the most complicated music by Chopin,
but it is one of the most authentic Chopin styles that you can imagine”
Lang Lang

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.

ABOUT LANG LANG

Internationally renowned pianist Lang Lang has sold millions of albums worldwide, topping classical charts and achieving simultaneous mainstream success. Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine, during the past decade he has performed for such dignitaries as President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and the late Queen Elizabeth II, as well as giving sold-out concerts with all of the world’s top orchestras and conductors. Lang Lang has also reached vast televised audiences by performing at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and with artists such as Metallica, Pharrell Williams and Herbie Hancock at various editions of the Grammy Awards. In April 2020 he took part in the One World: Together At Home concert, which was broadcast on major television networks and streamed online on multiple global platforms. In June 2022, Lang Lang was announced as an honoree in the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2023: he was recognised in a ceremony in April 2024 together with such stars as Paul Walker, Uma Thurman, Lenny Kravitz, Mindy Kaling, the Jonas Brothers, Melba Moore, Pentatonix and others.

The scale of Lang Lang’s musical achievements is mirrored by his tireless commitment to charitable causes, most notably through the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and Keys of Inspiration®. Both a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a UN Messenger of Peace, he has inspired over 40 million children to learn the piano and has developed hugely successful educational programmes. Lang Lang’s recent albums, 2019’s The Piano Book, 2020’s Goldberg Variations, 2022’s The Disney Book and 2024’s Lang Lang – Saint-Saëns, were runaway international bestsellers. He won an army of new fans in 2023 as one of the judges on The Piano, a heartwarming talent show broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK. One of the most influential classical musicians in the world, Lang Lang has over 20 million social media followers. Everything the pianist does is underpinned by his belief that “music makes life better – it heals, unites and inspires, and it makes us better people”.