Waltz in B minor, D. 145

Schubert wrote dozens of small piano dances for the Viennese house parties (Schubertiaden) at which his songs and dances filled the evening — Deutsche Tänze, Ländler, waltzes, ecossaises. D. 145 is a set of twelve published in 1823, and No. 6 in B minor is one of the most introspective: a slow, almost melancholy waltz with a brighter D-major middle section.

Technically the piece tests waltz character in a Romantic, not salon, idiom. The three-in-a-bar pulse must lift, but with weight rather than spring; the right hand carries a long-breathed melody; the left hand provides a low oom-pah-pah pattern that needs to be quiet and shaped. The middle section in D major asks for a colour change — a warmer, more legato voicing — before the B-minor return.

Two pitfalls. First, students play it like a Strauss waltz — light, brisk, salon-bright. Schubert's late dances are darker; the right-hand line wants weight and song, not sparkle. Second, the da capo return is often taken at the same speed and colour as the opening; let it settle slightly, the way a remembered tune does.

Listening: PD recordings of Schubert's dances are widely available on Musopen and IMSLP audio. Alfred Brendel's later recordings (in copyright) are the higher-grade reference for the right introspective weight.