Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu

[Philip Daniel]

Is it true that Chopin disliked his Fantasy-Impromptu in part because it bears resemblance to a piano piece by Moscheles, a contemporary composer whom Chopin had many reservations about? It is excellently composed, both brilliant in aspects of harmony and melodic expression, so I wonder why he hated it so much, even enough to keep it from being published during his lifetime .
Best Wishes,
Philip Daniel

[Flaming Buttocks of Doom]

Jeliness, I would find it very impressive if a 13 year old could play the Impromptu with clarity and sparkle and not in one blurred mess of pedal and scrambled, uneven notes. Excuse my skepticism, but I have seen this piece butchered enough times by young pianists who think they can play it to not believe those that say they can.

Philip, that is correct. Another story, perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not, goes that Chopin composed the piece because he was inspired by a piece that had potential, but he felt was wasted. Or something along those lines. Basically, he saw potential in a work that he felt was not done justice, and decided to build upon what he saw - the result being the Fantasie-Impromptu. I'm not sure about the credibility of this one, though.

[Jeliness2]

ok, sorry that i said that i play FI....

[Flaming Buttocks of Doom]

Hey, don't have to apologise. You can post a recording and prove me well wrong. I would love to be proven wrong on this issue, but as of yet it hasn't happened.

[Medtner]

Hey, don't have to apologise. You can post a recording and prove me well wrong. I would love to be proven wrong on this issue, but as of yet it hasn't happened.

Your name sickens me.

[Scriabinist]

How would FI compare to the impromptu in F# Op. 36 in terms of difficulty?

[virtuoso_735]

How would FI compare to the impromptu in F# Op. 36 in terms of difficulty?

I think the F# major impromptu is more difficult as a whole as it contains more technical difficulty and variety, while the FI has mainly cross-rhthyms and fast figurations for the most part.

[WinterWind_23]

Chopin didn't like the piece because some wrote something before, and the FI sounded derivative of that piece. It was published after his death but the late start has been made up for by the immense popularity of the piece.

[citrine_peridot]

i once heard it played in a music video by the pop singer himself,
he was in a bamboo forest . while the leaves falling down, he played FI for about 25sec, then start to sing his song ,then stop then play the middle section~~~~~~~~~~ his playing was nothing close to yundi's ~~~~~~~~~ at lease not many wrong notes .another thing , it was a little upright~~~~~~~~~~the company must be poor

just some entertainment~~~~~~~~~~~````

[Philip Daniel]

Hey, don't have to apologise. You can post a recording and prove me well wrong. I would love to be proven wrong on this issue, but as of yet it hasn't happened.

Your name sickens me.

I blieve that the word "flaming" suggests, or denotes, homosexuality .

[Scriabinist]

How would FI compare to the impromptu in F# Op. 36 in terms of difficulty?

I think the F# major impromptu is more difficult as a whole as it contains more technical difficulty and variety, while the FI has mainly cross-rhthyms and fast figurations for the most part.

Haha, fortunately, you were wrong about that one. I started dabbling with the F# major Impromptu yesterday and I think it's easier than Op. 66. I admit, it's harder to memorize and read but getting it up to tempo is easier.

[Helling]

The FI, while being a rather dull and uninspired work as far as I'm concerned, is probably one of the most pianistic pieces of Chopin's entire output - sounding difficult while in fact being quite simple to play.

[Amnesia]

The FI, while being a rather dull and uninspired work as far as I'm concerned, is probably one of the most pianistic pieces of Chopin's entire output - sounding difficult while in fact being quite simple to play.

The fact that you would even say that proves you don't know much about the piece at all. Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu is not only an inspirational piece, but it's one of his most challenging pieces to play well. Sure, anyone can play something, but playing it well, the way the composer intended it to be played, is something entirely different.

[Helling]

The fact that you would even say that proves you don't know much about the piece at all. Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu is not only an inspirational piece, but it's one of his most challenging pieces to play well. Sure, anyone can play something, but playing it well, the way the composer intended it to be played, is something entirely different.

The fact that I would even say that rather proves that I have another opinion than you do about this piece, not that your opinion is somehow correct from an objective point of view while mine would be wrong.

The tired argument about anything being difficult to play well would apply to any piece - you can use it to claim that op 28 no 4 is the most difficult piece in the world to play well. However, unless Chopin came to visit you during a spirit meeting and told you that FI has a special kind of difficulty that isn't shared by most any other Chopin piece, I don't really see your point. That is only your perception of this piece, not having anything to do with how Chopin intended this particular piece to be played - as you cannot very well know that.

Rather, the little evidence that does exist rather points to the fact that Chopin didn't care much for this piece. At least it was one of the ones he asked to be destroyed at his deathbed. Whether that is to be taken as a sign that he genuinely disliked the piece is open for the debate, but I doubt he did this because nobody could play it well.

[Helling]

Also, I (or rather we) accepted your recording of this piece for the piano society site. Thus, it's not as if my negative opinion about this piece leads to any sort of discrimination.