Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2

Ott's reading of the C-sharp minor Waltz has a quality of autumnal resignation that distinguishes it from more animated interpretations. The main theme — that characteristic lilting figure with its upward reach and downward sigh — is played at a tempo that allows each phrase to breathe fully, Ott shaping the melodic line with a rubato that sounds natural rather than imposed. The A section's recurring material develops a gentle obsessiveness in Ott's hands, as if the theme is being turned over in the mind rather than danced. The contrasting sections offer temporary relief — the B section's brightness, the C section's more assertive confidence — before the return to the main theme, which now carries the weight of everything that interrupted it. This is late Chopin: dance forms emptied of social function and refilled with private feeling. Ott understands that the waltz rhythm here is not an invitation to move but a memory of having moved, once, in better times.