Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Fantasie in F minor, op. 49

I think the Fantasie is every bit as hard technically as most of his non-sonata long works. Perhaps not as difficult as the schubert and schumann fantasies though i think few college applicants will have those under their belts!

(if your name isn't George Li, of course)

Bruce was practically begging for it. But then again it likely means nothing considering Bruce and most of PW probably don't know what that meme is. (or memes in general)

It isn't as musically demanding as the polonaise fantasie and I found the barcarolle to be harder technically.

I know what a meme is (both in the sense from a few years ago and the more recent Reddit-y sense), and I hate images in PW signatures, yours definitely included! Sorry! (And please do consider changing it because I bet a lot of us find it distracting. )

As for the difficulty of op.49, I think that given a few months, I could do it justice. I cannot say that for about 40-50% of the Chopin etudes, by comparison.


-J

You'd be surprised.

I "dealt with it". Adblock to the rescue. Someone else used a cartoon in their signature that I blocked. You can alternatively turn signatures off in your user preferences.

Actually harder than most of those other pieces, IMO -- technically as well as musically.


At least as hard.

Let's cut to the chase, okay, folks? Anyone asking this question is begging for compliments.

Right? I mean, really, he's saying, "I'm considering the F minor Fantasie. Do you think it's REALLY and truly hard enough and impressive enough for a college audition??"

Surely this student has a TEACHER who would advise him? Yes? Why not go there first for advice?

He's fishing. Perhaps, even trolling. The F minor Fantasie is big league stuff and we all know it. Any high school kid who could master this could get into any decent program. And any high school kid who has to ASK if it's impressive enough is a poseur.

I don't think so. Who knows, maybe you're right, but it doesn't give me that impression at all.


I guess that means you'd be surprised by the many other posters who've said it's not that hard.


Do you remember how you were in high school?

Be that as it may ....I first studied this piece when I was in college. After I just started it, I read that the piece was very hard (I still even remember the way it was put: "I know of no more difficult work...."), it surprised me, and I went and asked my teacher if it was really considered that hard.

Neither, actually. Crazy, right?!

are you kidding me, man?
The Fantasie is licentiate diploma level stuff.

Is part of the “difficulty-level” of Chopin’s Fantasia Opus 49 due to the sight-reading of the big LH “jumps” to the score? (especially from m21-m32)

Are you joking?

Nothing whatsoever to do with the "sight-reading," nor with the score reading.

It's the playing.

And those measures near the beginning are far from the most demanding part of the piece! (Didn't even count measures; I didn't have to. Nothing so early in the piece is anything like that.) Musically they do present challenges, but....that's subtle.

P.S. You know a lot.
Didn't you really know all that?

Well, well Mark ... you trash my opinion ... so I’ll put on my crash helmet.

I’ve just played through the first 32 measures on my Grotrian Steinweg and can’t see the difficulty ... but then as you know, I use a graphic system of writing music which has given me the advantage of easy prima vista playing.

In typical Chopin layout the first statement is contained in the opening 4 measures ... by m11-12 Fred grumbles a repeat of m5-6 with LH chords deep down in the bass.

However from m20 we get a jerky divergence of hands ... with the LH moving DOWN and the RH moving UP.

Might I ask (please no rocks) if you can play the first 32 measures of the Fantasia?

Kind regards, btb

Oy.

btb, I see that you actually answered it yourself!


Right!
And play on further, my friend!

BTW, I didn't trash your opinion. What I did was, I doubted that it was your actual opinion.
I do think you know better. Much better.

Maybe the whole problem is that I still don't really know how to read your posts....

btb -

With all due respect, the real fun doesn't start until later in the piece - jump to 2:40 in this video and you'll "hear" what I mean (follow along with the score).

http://youtu.be/c0WTVy7XhlE

And here's Part 2, starting with the prayer-like middle section.....

http://youtu.be/kEWdl8YJCAg

Cheers !!

Thanks for that carey ...

Thanks chaps ... I’ve dug out the Fantaisie Opus 49 disc ... and carefully listened to the rendition with the 18-page score in hand.
(composed in 1841 when Chopin was 31 years old.)

But, upon coming back to the ranch
(putting my six-shooter on the mantlepiece till I next see Mark) ... why would anybody want to choose this Fantaisie to impress the judges ... when there is a wagon-load of breathtaking Chopin works crying out for a daring airing?

The Fantasy structure is any composer’s excuse to bend the rules ... and frig around with tempo and indulge in inconsequential rubato ... with lashings of scalar and chromatic runs ... boring stuff.

When the chappie gets it right as with the Fantaisie Impromptu Opus 66 ... we all go into adoration mode.

But I suppose the OP chappie is looking for something which is not “run-of-the-mill” (perhaps layered in dust and possibly on the skids for eternal hibernation (remembering that this work is posthumous and only published after the death of Chopin in 1849.)

My guess is that Chopin didn’t want this work to see the light of day ... he had already written his masterpiece ... Fantaisie Impromptu Opus 66.

Well, well ... I feel better now.

YT videos always stall out at work, so not sure what is happening @ 2:40, but I always thought the real 'festivities' of the piece commenced at measure 109 with the contrarily moving octaves. Few passages I can immediately think of are so prone to inaccuracies at full tempo.

Some years ago I heard a famous pianist completely bomb out at that point in concert. I felt really badly for him. (Out of respect, the pianist will remain anonymous, but it's a name everyone on this board knows.)

I watched the great No-Wrong-Notes Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli split a note there once...

But I think you're referring to someone else.

For a wrong-note passage, I think the coda to the March of Schumann's Fantasy in C takes the biscuit. Horowitz's comeback concert was particularly dire - even after he patched up a few notes on his so-called 'live' recording released on LP. I obtained the back-to-basics unadulterated version that Sony (much later) released on CD....