Fantasia in F Minor

The title “fantasy” suggests the character of a composed-out improvisation with a range of widely contrasting ideas, including material that seems ripe for development but does not in fact reappear—just as one would expect of an improvisation. Chopin’s Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49 meets these expectations, but is meticulously organised. It was composed in 1841 at George Sand’s summer estate in central France during a productive year for Chopin, who at the age of just 31 was on the verge of a final creative period that yielded a succession of masterpieces. The sombre opening—whose dotted rhythm and minor key has associations of a funeral march—makes a striking impression but does not return, so ultimately feels like an introductory prelude. The music has a cumulative nervous energy, even when further march-like ideas appear in a major key. A central “Lento sostenuto” section in B major—a pensive and serenely beautiful chorale—briefly offsets the surrounding turbulence, while the ending, in the relative major key of A flat, is emotionally ambiguous and devoid of any sense of triumphant arrival.