F. Chopin. Polonaise Fantasie Op. 61. Valentina Lisitsa

PolonaisefantaisieinAflat major, Op. 61, is a composition forpianobyFrédéric Chopin. It was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, written and published in 1846. This work was slow to gain favour with musicians, due to itsharmoniccomplexity and intricateform. Arthur Hedleywas one of the first critics to speak positively of the work, writing in 1947 that it works on the hearer s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by theF minor Fantasyor thefourth Ballade, althoughArthur Rubinstein, Leff Pouishnoff, Claudio ArrauandVladimir Horowitzhad been including it in their programs some decades earlier. It is intimately indebted to thepolonaisefor itsmetre, much of itsrhythm, and some of itsmelodiccharacter, but thefantaisieis the operative formal paradigm, and Chopin is said to have referred initially to the piece only as a Fantasy. Parallels with the Fantaisie in F minor include the work s overall tonality, Aflat, the key of its slower middle sec