Valse mélancolique / 'Le Regret', Op. 332
This piece in F sharp minor was originally composed by Charles Mayer, and titled 'Le Regret, Op. 332'. For many years it was incorrectly attributed to Chopin under the title 'Valse mélancolique in F-sharp minor' A1/7. It was re-published around 1930 and later in 1986. In 2012 it was discovered, through the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, that the piece had been indeed composed by Charles Mayer in 1861 (or before) in a more elaborated form, and that the 'Chopin' version is lacking a significant amount of music.
Frederic Francois Chopin was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French–Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano". Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there. Following the Russian suppression of the Polish November 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances. From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39. The vast majority of Chopin's works are exclusively for solo piano, the most notable exceptions being his two piano concertos. His compositions are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude.
