A knock is heard at the door of the room in which this man - Frederic Chopin - is dreaming.Enter Madame Sand. With her is the pianist and composer Franz Liszt and the wife of the piano manufacturer,Camille Pleyel to whom Chopin dedicated the French edition of his PRELUDES Op.28,and one or two other friends,perhaps the cellist Franchomme and the singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia.A pardon from Madame Sand,and then intercessions and quarrelling followed by reconciliations.
If we can believe the words of Liszt,then according to Chopin,and one Charles Rollinar,such a scene was the antecedent of the Fantasie's formation.
Unmistakably a narrative unfolds,but unlike the legendary and heroic tales depicted in the Ballades,it appears that here,Chopin is unveiling to us some compelling and climactic episode - an odyssey of cedar-pannelled events from his own life,for there is within its intrigue and brew a subtle subjectivity.
It begins as a slow march - two bars of four seemingly breathless phrases, sequences of falling 4ths - which usher in a second strain.
Hadow says that here,Chopin leaves us in question about his intentions:is the melody congruent,and will the concluding strain,the end result of such an astonishingly diverse array of ideas ,resolve to show us that such individual ideas, as with the two great sonatas,unify? He rightly concludes that "these doubts are solved in a most masterly fashion in the concluding phrase,which not only carries the modulation with consummate ease, but completes the organic outline of the melody with the daintiest delicacy and finish.
The ascending cadenza-like triplets that follow,not unlike the contemplative cadenza-like introduction and pauses of the POLONAISE-FANTASIE are the true unfolding of Chopin's narrative - the awakening from his dream.They gather in momentum before plummeting headlong into what Alan Walker described as a "dark and passionate theme, drawing a kind of desperate urgency from its syncopation."
But within the swarthy fervor of these measures, there is a force more driven than urgency. This is reminiscent of the princely Nureyev in the guise of Armande, his cape billowing behind him as he rushes in desperation to declare his love for the dying Marguerite.
Huneker refers to this melody as "that heroic love-chant erroneously marked 'dolce' and played with the effeminacies of a 'salon'. Three times does it resound, yet not once should it be carressed; the bronze fingers of a Tausig are needed here."
All of these motifs,themes and ideas recur throughout, several times over, developing their way toward the key of Eb and a triumphant passage of octaves in contrary motion, a brisk march,16 bars in length.An augmented 6th chord prepares us for the next wave of triplets, less contemplative, which once again hurl us headlong into that "dark and passionate theme" desperate and surging.
After three ascending octaves, all pianissmo, there comes the lento sostenuto,a reverie - one of Chopin's most tender melodies, perfectly balanced and beautifully serene. After another wave of triplets,then comes the recapitulation,and eventually we arrive at the tonality of Ab manjor-the key in which the piece ends.
Of the FANTASIE in F MINOR, James Huneker wrote: "It parades a formal beauty not disfigured by an excess of violence, either personal or patriotic, and its melodies, if restless by melancholy,are of surprising nobility and dramatic grandeur."
PHILLIP WILCHER
