Niecks believes there is a return of the early freshness and poetry in the last three Mazurkas, op. 63: "They are, indeed, teeming with interesting matter," he writes. "Looked at from the musician's point of view, how much do we not see novel and strange, beautiful and fascinating withal? Sharp dissonances, chromatic passing notes, suspensions and anticipations, displacement of accent, progressions of perfect fifths--the horror of schoolmen--sudden turns and unexpected digressions that are so unaccountable, so out of the line of logical sequence, that one's following the composer is beset with difficulties. But all this is a means to an end, the expression of an individuality with its intimate experiences. The emotional content of many of these trifles--trifles if considered only by their size--is really stupendous."

Huneker wrote: "Full of vitality, it is sufficiently various in figuration and rhythmical life to single it from its fellows."