The third Impromptu in G flat, op. 51, is not often played. It
may be too difficult for the vandal with an average technique,
but it is neither so fresh in feeling nor so spontaneous in
utterance as its companions. There is a touch of the faded,
blase, and it is hardly healthy in sentiment. Here are some
ophidian curves in triplets, as in the first Impromptu, but with
interludes of double notes, in coloring tropical and rich to
morbidity. The E flat minor trio is a fine bit of melodic
writing. The absence of simplicity is counterbalanced by greater
freedom of modulation and complexity of pattern. The impromptu
flavor is not missing, and there is allied to delicacy of design
a strangeness of sentiment--that strangeness which Edgar Poe
declared should be a constituent element of all great art.
The Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor, op. 66, was published
by Fontana in 1855, and is one of the few posthumous works of
Chopin worthy of consideration. It was composed about 1834. A
true Impromptu, but the title of Fantaisie given by Fontana is
superfluous.
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