Fantasie-Impromptu in C-Sharp Minor (Op. 66)

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Introduction

The Fantaisie-Impromptu, op. posth. 66, was composed in 1834 and published after Chopin’s death by his close friend and copyist, Julian Fontana, in 1855. It is unclear why Fontana took the liberty of publishing the work, especially as Chopin had forbidden publication of his unpublished manuscripts – requesting they be burned.

In 1960, Artur Rubinstein acquired an album belonging to Augusta Emma Wilde, Baroness Truro, the Baroness d’Este. This album had been sold at auction in Paris and contained a copy of the Fantaisie-Impromptu in Chopin’s own hand, dated 1835. Rubinstein thought the reason Chopin had not published the piece was because he had been paid a commission by the Baroness and was therefore not at liberty to publish commercially.

There are a number of differences between the autograph and Fontana’s version. Because Fontana’s is generally the better known of the two for historical reasons, and still the version preferred today played by many elite artists, I have decided to go with that as the basis of this edition. However, if you wish to explore the autograph version, I can recommend the Henle Urtext edition.

The piece is in three sections. The outer sections are characterised by sweeping semiquaver patterns in the right hand, against sextuplet arpeggiated chords in the left. The main melody of the middle section (derived from the opening material), is a cantilena in a moderate tempo. At first it seems that the coda is going to bring the piece hurtling to an impassioned close, but the reappearance of the cantabile theme in the left hand calms the mood, and the piece ends softly.

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