Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Fantaisie Impromptu Study Group

What do you find most difficult with Fantaisie Impromptu and how have you overcome that difficulty?

For me the greatest challenge has been that run in measures 7-8. It is beginning to respond to treatment through a variety of techniques: breaking it down into small segments, practicing in rhythms, shifting accents, speeding up with metronome.

What are your challenges?

I was just playing the piece today, and Oh my I am improving well!

I am actually getting the hands together. I have the start, 1st 2 runs, then the big arpeggio run up then down, and a measure or two after that. Its the change that I am stuck on right now.

I am also getting my right hand part down where it plays the octaves & notes in between (dont have the score in front of me at the moment!)

Its really starting to come together. I am finding that playing it slow is being a challenge. Almost as if the song can only be learned at full speed!

My greatest challenge was the speed, but I am improving...
One thing I really have to eliminate in my playing... There is a tiny delay, the fraction of a second, at the end of some measures, and it should just not be there...

Oooh, a F-I study group! How did I not notice this!
For me, the hardest part is the coda, with the speed, rapid dynamic changes, and keeping it crisp.

Does anyone know why the suggested fingering for the right hand on these measures is so counterintuitive?

Shouldn't the fingering be 3,2,3,2,1,2,3,5 3,2,3,2,1,2,3,5 etc.

What fingering do you guys use for this passage?

That is the part that is killing me! My fingers just dont seem to want to move fast enough when they are so close to each other.

Yes, the fingering in your score is not optimal imo...the 3,2,3,2,1 fingering is exactly what I used and it makes for very fast and even playing of those few measures. To get extremely even and not smudge/rush notes as you ascend the keyboard will take a little bit of time especially at performance speed, but as you continually practice you will be surprised how quickly the notes fall under your fingers. With proper dynamics, it gradually builds towards such a powerful climax where you can really lash out the descending chromatic scale and nail the descending broken octaves. Probably the most fun part of the piece to play...at least for me, and people really get a kick out of it. And then, you can take a deep breath and glide through teh beautiful middle section. And the best part is...virtually the whole piece then repeats itself up until the last page!! So, once you make it through to the middle section...you have really traversed through most of the tough stuff. With that being said, the 2:1 rhythym in the last page makes for easier progression, BUT it is quite acrobatic and actually did take a bit of time to get real fluid and not sound jumbled. Getting the repeating right hand very quiet and even at the end as your left hand cleanly plays the beuatiful melody takes lots and lots and lots of repetition but, just like everything else...all of a sudden one day you will sit down and it will just fall perfectly in place.

I use 3,2,3,2,1... too, just seems to make sense that way

That is indeed the suggested fingering in my Dover edition...

I mean the fingering YOU suggest...

Is it is OK to use the Dover edition (collection) by the way? Or should I use the Fontana edition?

What fingering do you guys use for the arpeggios I circled in red?

I'm using 5,3,2,1,2,4. Even though I have large hands, I'm having trouble playing these arpeggios quickly. Should I try 5,2,1,2,1,2? Or would that fingering slow me down?

I use 5,2,1,2,1,2. I haven't tried it at blazing speed yet so I don't know how well it holds up at performance tempo. It seemed to me the most comfortable, injury-free fingering.

I'm pretty sure it's OK to use the Dover edition. I think it's based on the Rubinstein manuscript that BruceD mentioned.

I use 5-3-1-3 (crossover)-1-3

I have a tendency to use 5-3-1-3-1-3. It just sort of happens naturally when I play it.

I'm starting to learn this piece after listening to Yundi Li & Igoshina. What a fantastic piece.

After overtaking measure 7-8 difficulty (boy that was really frustrating), my current challenge is the part where the accents moved from #1 to #5. Accents on #1 is very natural, but I could never managed proper accents on #5. What's the trick?

I'm glad to hear someone else had difficulty with measures 7-8!

And now the part where the accents shift from #1 to #5. This shift is only in the Fontana version and starts from measure 17:

I learnt a trick to bring out the accent on the pinky:

Practice each quadruplet of 16th notes as a chord, and for each chord strike the accented note four times (loudly) while holding down the other notes. Move on to the next quadruplet.

Then practice the quadruplets as written while listening for the melody in the pinky.

Measures 41 and 42 in the Fontana edition :

Does anyone play these measures as indicated in the score?

These two measures are marked both Lento and pesante, yet I don't think I have ever heard a performance where those indications are strictly observed. In other words, following Fontana's interpolations, those two measures are still at ff and should swell to even louder in the middle of measure 41, and both measures 41 and 42 should be slower than the "B" section (moderato cantabile) beginning at measure 43.

Even Maurice Hinson in the rather detailed Alfred "Anatomy of a Classic" edition of the Fantaisie-Impromptu remarks : "The più lento at measure 41 begins fortissimo and pesante [heavy], after which there should be a diminuendo and slight rallentando into the sostenuto at measure 43. He seems to be confusing the indications in the manuscript and Fontana editions, the version that most performers seem to prefer, Rubinstein excepted.

In the manuscript edition, it's marked più lento and ff whereas in the Fontana it's marked Largo and pesante. There is no ff marking in the Fontana edition, although it is assumed since there is no diminuendo from the ff marking in measure 37.

When I asked my teacher about this, she said that she requires that her students play it as written in the Fontana edition, since that's the edition her students seem to be using. I suppose some could argue that it's Fontana's addition, not Chopin's; yet "almost everyone" chooses to play everything else that Fontana added to this version of the score but not the dynamics and tempo of these two measures.

Regards,

I use 5, 2, 1, 2, 1, 4 on the B so that the hand is prepared for the octave arpeggio beginning on A with 5.

Regards,

I use 5-3-1-2-1-3, just kinda happened naturally too