Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major, Op.61

Inspired composer of waltzes and mazurkas though he was, Chopin found in the polonaise something that no other dance form could offer. It was not only a matter of Polish national sentiment but even more a matter of structural potential. The Polonaise-fantaisie, which was written four years after the last of the proud series of six Polonaises, is actually the longest of Chopin’s piano works in one movement. More poetic than nationalist in expression and at the same time more spontaneous in development and more varied in colour than any of its kind, the Polonaise-Fantasie is decidedly more fantasy than polonaise.

Inspired composer of waltzes and mazurkas though he was, Chopin found in the polonaise something that no other dance form could offer. It was not only a matter of Polish national sentiment, which found apt expression in the strutting rhythms and muscular harmonies of the polonaise as he so distinctively developed it, but even more a matter of structural potential. The Polonaise-fantaisie, which was written in George Sand’s chateau at Nohant in the summer of 1846 - four years after the last of the proud series of six Polonaises published in Paris between 1836 and 1843 - is actually the longest of Chopin’s piano works in one movement. More poetic than nationalist in expression and at the same time more spontaneous in development and more varied in colour than any of its kind, the Polonaise-Fantasie is decidedly more fantasy than polonaise.

Inspired composer of waltzes and mazurkas though he was, Chopin found in the polonaise something that no other dance form could offer. It was not only a matter of Polish national sentiment, which found apt expression in the strutting rhythms and muscular harmonies of the polonaise as he so distinctively developed it, but even more a matter of structural potential. The Polonaise-fantaisie, written three years before the composer’s death four years after the last of the proud series of six Polonaises, is actually the longest of Chopin’s piano works in one movement.

Prophetic of the large-scale structural mastery Chopin might have achieved had he lived only half as long as, say, Richard Strauss, the Polonaise-Fantaisie is an indication too of the still developing freedom of his imagination. As the title suggests, it is no ordinary polonaise. The conventions are taken for granted. Listen for the characteristic polonaise rhythm and you will hear nothing of it throughout the introduction, which is in no dancing mood. Indeed, after the first appearance of the main theme and another, more lively one, it is scarcely heard again. There is nothing at all of the polonaise in the B major middle section, with its lovely duet between an expressive left hand and a shy right, and there is no conventional third section to balance and reflect the first. The main theme reappears on the crest of a crescendo but it is displaced by a still more forceful version of the expressive left-hand melody from the middle section, its even quavers now altered to energetic dotted rhythms and surviving almost to the last bar.

At Nohant in the summer of 1846 – shortly before his break with George Sand and when he still had the strength and the ambition to work on a comparatively large scale – Chopin completed a Cello Sonata with the most impressive of all his first-movement constructions. At much the same time he wrote his Polonaise-Fantaisie, which is remarkably complex in form and the longest of his piano works in one movement, longer than any of the ballades or scherzos, longer than any of the other polonaises, longer even than the F minor Fantasia of 1841. It was as though he had deliberately set out to extend himself, while retaining his characteristic spontaneity of expression.

Prophetic of the large-scale structural mastery Chopin might have achieved had he lived only half as long as, say, Richard Strauss, the Polonaise-Fantaisie is an indication too of the still developing freedom of his imagination. As the title suggests, it is no ordinary polonaise. The conventions are taken for granted. Listen for the characteristic polonaise rhythm and you will hear nothing of it throughout the introduction, which is in no dancing mood. Indeed, after the first appearance of the main theme and another, more lively one, it is scarcely heard again. It should, on the other hand, echo on in the subconscious, to offset the unconventional rhythms of the rest of the piece.

On its first appearance, the main theme is poised above an accompani­ment of undulating triplets, almost as in a nocturne. There is nothing at all of the polonaise in the B major middle section, with its lovely duet between an expressive left hand and a shy right, its elegant theme in G sharp minor, and the poetic anthology of trills. Some of the more prominent themes of the work, including those of the introduction, are passed under review, but there is no conventional third section to balance and reflect the first. The main theme reappears on the crest of a crescendo, accompanied by massive triplet chords in both hands. It is displaced, however, by a still more forceful version of the expressive left-hand melody from the middle section, its even quavers now altered to energetic dotted rhythms and surviving almost to the last bar.     

“I should now like to finish my Cello Sonata, Barcarolle and something else that I don’t know how to name…” wrote Chopin in December 1845. In fact, four years earlier he had described his Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44, as “a sort of fantasy in the form of a polonaise,” as he might have remembered when he completed his new work in A flat major at Nohant in the summer of 1846. Certainly, none of his polonaises could more aptly be described as a fantasy than this one in A flat, which is more poetic than nationalist, more spontaneous in development, more ambitious in construction, more varied in colour than any of its kind - all in all, more fantasy than polonaise.

The longest of his piano works in one movement, the Polonaise-Fantaisie ranks alongside the Cello Sonata and the Barcarolle as an indication of the large-scale structural mastery Chopin would have achieved had he lived only half as long as, say, Richard Strauss. It is an indication too of the still developing freedom of his imagination at this late point in his career. Conventions that might have constrained him are now more or less abandoned.

Listen, for example, for the characteristic polonaise rhythm and you will hear nothing of it throughout the introduction which, with its fateful descending fourths and and its thoughtfully rising arpeggios, is in no dancing mood. Indeed, after the definitive introduction of the main theme and of another, more lively one, it is scarcely heard again. On its first reappearance, the main theme is poised above an accompani­ment of undulating triplets, almost as in a nocturne or impromptu.

There is nothing at all of the polonaise either in the più lento middle section in B major, which is a virtual slow movement remarkable for its lovely duet between an expressive left hand and a shy right, its elegant new theme in G sharp minor, and a characteristically poetic anthology of trills. Although some of the more prominent themes of the work are now passed under review - partly perhaps to establish the relationships between the rising arpeggios of the introduction and the left-hand melody of the più lento - there is no conventional third section to balance and reflect the first. The main theme does eventually make a triumphant reappearance on the crest of a crescendo accompanied by massive triplet chords in both hands. It is displaced, however, by a transformed version of the expressive left-hand melody from the middle section, its even quavers now altered to energetic dotted rhythms and its new found power yielding only to a low echo of the più lento trills in the final bars.