In his youth, when still searching for his own personal style, Debussy composed a series of short, stand-alone piano pieces. He took traditional genres such as the ballade, mazurka, nocturne and waltz, but in general used each of them just once, as if trying them out. One such was the “Valse romantique”, published by Choudens of Paris in 1891 and thus written at the same time as his famous piano works “Two Arabesques” and the “Suite bergamasque”.

This charming waltz is of moderate difficulty and thus ideal either as a pedagogical piece or for concert performance. Our collected volume “Debussy: Piano Pieces” (HN 404) offers numerous other short piano pieces of modest difficulty for those who find that this practical, stand-alone edition awakens in them a desire for more.