There are no fewer than 34 individual dance-miniatures in Franz Schubert's Valses sentimentales, D. 779—almost but not quite a record among his dance-sets for piano (D. 365 has 36). Moreover, some of these waltzes go well beyond the 16- or 24-measure norm for such small binary dances and traverse an expressive and harmonic distance far out of the reach of most such dances. Not surprisingly, these are some of Schubert's most delightful musical treats.

The Valses sentimentales were likely composed in or around 1823, and didn't have long to wait before being grabbed by a publisher; they were printed in 1825 as Opus 50. Rather than begin with the usual sturdy, even bombastic introduction dance, Schubert opens the Valses sentimentales with a gentle one in C major whose lovely descending chromaticism in the second half touches on a little motive that will eventually fill the centerpiece of the set (No. 13, not the actual middle of D. 779, but the longest and arguably the finest piece in it). The eighth notes of No. 3 are like raindrops, the straight-laced chords of No. 6 sound as though they were concocted in a beer-hall (indeed, they may have been!). For the lovely and lengthy No. 13 Schubert moves to A major for the first time in the set and writes "zart" ("sweet"). Beginning with No. 18 the flat keys (A flat major, E flat major, B flat major) take over for most of the rest of the set. The final pair of dances offer us two contrasting faces of A flat; the one tender, the other exuberantly self-assured.

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