Referred to as a "little masterpiece" by both G.C. Ashton Jonson and Alan Walker, Chopin's genious - indeed his very disposition -is just as satisfylingly in evidence here as it is in any of his works. Despite its unfettered spontaneity and freedom, its temperance overall is part of the manifestation of a well defined and edificial impulse, as polished as it was pure.
Of this Impromptu, Schumann wrote: "It is so refined in form; its cantilena is from beginning to end so enclosed in charming figuration; it is nothing more nor less than so unique an impromptu that it cannot be placed beside any of his other compositions."
G.C. Ashton Jonson has so rightly paralleled the English playwright and poet, Ben Jonson's lines - 'in small proportions we just beauties see; and in short measures life may perfect be" - to it, that one almost feels little else need be said. Further parallels have been drawn with Wagner, perhaps ironically so, given Andre Gide's acuminous and artful observation that whereas Chopin charged his notes with emotion, Wagner merely charged his emotion with notes. More than that, not only did Chopin charge his notes with such currents of intensified emotions, he could equally imbue a single note with such sonority, by way of the texture and shape of the notes leading to it - as with the Ab at bar 52 (no less the final note of a phrase) or the Bb at bar 8 of the 2nd movement of his F minor Concerto (no less the final note of a phrase, yet again!)- that its resonance alone was such to move mountains.
Perhaps it is best here to leave the final words about this so elegantly crafted and seductive work to kleczynski, who of it wrote: "Here everything totters from foundation to summit, and everything is, nevertheless, so beuatiful and clear."
PHILLIP WILCHER
August, 2002
(Article published by Music Teacher Magazine)
