Throughout his life, Chopin wrote at least twenty-seven polonaises, the first of which was when he was only seven. The last was in 1846, three years before his early death at age 39. And we count "at least" 27 because at least seven polonaises have been lost; they appear in his correspondence to publishers, pupils, or friends but have not come down to us.
He called Polonaise-Fantasie the last one, for lack of a better title. So he confesses in a letter of 1845 to his Polish family, pointing out his "difficulty in finding the title of a new composition." These were only some of the difficulties. Family harmonies are fading, and so is love. He will spend that summer in Nohant, and it will be his last.
The difficulties are domestic but no less burdensome. The Sand children are no longer children. Maurice is twenty years old and Solange is fifteen. Both are entering life as difficult teenagers. Chopin does not take sides, for now. Rather, he is bored:
"The whole summer was spent here in walks and excursions in the region.... As far as I am concerned, I did not take part, because I would have found more fatigue than pleasure in it. I am tired, I am bored. My character suffers because of it and the young people experience no pleasure in my company."
Nevertheless, that year of 1846 proved to be prodigal. The three mazurkas of Opus 59, the sonata for cello and piano, the Barcarolle, and the Polonaise-Fantaisie, which had probably been outlined the previous year, were completed.
As mentioned, this "new composition" is preceded by at least twenty-six polonaises. There are brilliant, heroic, military, and tragic ones. But this time it took a lot of work for Chopin to find a suitable title or subtitle. And the question arises: why didn't he simply call it Polonaise. There was a reason. The work was far more than a familiar polonaise and, curiously, also something less.
Polonaise-Fantaisie for piano No. 7, in A-flat major, opus 61
It is one of Chopin's most important works and one of the most complex harmonic writing so only in the twentieth century the work began to be favored by audiences, critics, and performers.
In the opinion of scholars, the new composition seems more like a fantasy than a polonaise (with which Chopin, hesitantly, would have finally hit the nail on the head), a sort of melancholic reverie that, despite the atmosphere, manages to maintain the rhythmic characteristics of the traditional dance, albeit at times.
A long improvisatory introduction, marked allegro maestoso, leads into the thematic material proper.
Lasting a little more than twelve minutes, it was published that same year 1846, with a dedication to a student, Mme. Veyret, the wife of the honorary consul of Ecuador.
The rendition is by the brilliant pianist Kate Liu – born in Singapore – during her presentation at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, in 2015, when she was awarded the Third Prize.
