These lighthearted salon pieces were the first piano music to enter Tchaikovsky's catalog since 1878. Half are waltzes, and all are dedicated to women.

No. 1 is a flashy "Valse de salon," with rippling outer sections; the middle portion is a halting, mainly chordal sequence that returns to the main matter with a little cadenza. The overall effect is quite brilliant.

No. 2 is titled "Polka peu dansant." This B minor piece has a hesitant, Chopinesque quality in its A section, but the B section features a surging melody with restless accompaniment that is echt-Tchaikovsky. The A section returns, followed by a coda in which the B section's broken-chord accompaniment underlies a different melody.

No. 3 is a chromatic, improvisatory "Menuetto scherzo," extremely tangled and frisky. This sandwiches a trio section of right-hand phrase fragments over abbreviated left-hand runs.

No. 4, "Natha Valse," seems to be a musical portrait of its dedicatee, Natha Plesskaya. The outer sections are gentle, sentimental, yet playful; the middle section is more outgoing, marked Animato.

The fifth piece, "Romance," apparently portrays Tchaikovsky's niece Vera. More flowing and graceful than its predecessor, the piece begins with one of the composer's favorite designations, Andante cantabile. The middle section is more ornate and assertive, with the melody constantly whipping around on itself in a quick five-note turn. A miniature recitative leads back to the A section.

No. 6 is a "Valse sentimentale," highly Chopinesque in its sweet melancholy; the middle section is faster and more brusque. The repeat of the first part now leaves room for a short improvised cadenza just before the end.

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Tchaikovsky's Valse sentimentale, the last of his Six morceaux (Six Pieces), for piano, Op. 51, was composed in 1882, during a very difficult period in the composer's life. From the late 1870s until 1885, the composer felt restless, somewhat disoriented, and unsure of his creative powers. As a result, he led a nomadic existence, constantly traveling, without a home he could call his own. Composed in the summer of 1882, at a cottage near Kamenka, where Tchaikovsky was able to work in peace, the Six morceaux are charming, intimate miniatures—all dedicated to women. The Valse sentimentale, despite its title, strikes the listener as quite sincere and open, suggesting an atmosphere of tranquil truthfulness. If the composer is speaking to a woman in this composition, his opening statement, reminiscent, but only superficially, of a waltz by Chopin, seems almost nonchalant in its impatient directness. However, the inner, deeper movement of the composition, which surfaces during a deceptively calmer middle section, reveals that characteristic complex of melancholy, strong (and sometimes ambivalent) feelings, introspection, and vague nostalgia that defines, in part at least, the distinctive quality of Tchaikovsky's music for solo piano.

© All Music Guide

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Tchaikovsky's Valse sentimentale, the last of his Six morceaux (Six Pieces), for piano, Op. 51, was composed in 1882, during a very difficult period in the composer's life. From the late 1870s until 1885, the composer felt restless, somewhat disoriented, and unsure of his creative powers. As a result, he led a nomadic existence, constantly traveling, without a home he could call his own. Composed in the summer of 1882, at a cottage near Kamenka, where Tchaikovsky was able to work in peace, the Six morceaux are charming, intimate miniatures—all dedicated to women. The Valse sentimentale, despite its title, strikes the listener as quite sincere and open, suggesting an atmosphere of tranquil truthfulness. If the composer is speaking to a woman in this composition, his opening statement, reminiscent, but only superficially, of a waltz by Chopin, seems almost nonchalant in its impatient directness. However, the inner, deeper movement of the composition, which surfaces during a deceptively calmer middle section, reveals that characteristic complex of melancholy, strong (and sometimes ambivalent) feelings, introspection, and vague nostalgia that defines, in part at least, the distinctive quality of Tchaikovsky's music for solo piano.

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