Eileen Joyce plays Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu, op.66

Despite Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu, op.66 being one of the composer’s best loved pieces and possibly over-played, I have always enjoyed it. Popularity should never breed contempt, in the world of music. I cannot quite remember when I first heard this work. I do recall that amongst a pile of sheet music that I inherited from a Lancastrian uncle was an arrangement of this piece by Victor Ambroise. On the cover was a lovely picture of Eileen Joyce as well as the first bar of the music. Even in this arrangement it was beyond my skill. It had been published by Chappell and Co., London in 1947. Several years later I caught up with Joyce’s performance of the original work. The recording had originally been made on 18 December 1939 and had been released on Parlophone E11432 as a 12” record. It was coupled with the gentler, but equally delightful Berceuse, op.57.  In 1987, HMV had released an extraordinary 2-LP collection, The Eileen Joyce Album (HMV EX29 12713). Included there was her charming performance of the Fantasie-Impromptu.  Unfortunately, I never possessed this album, but was only able to borrow it for a few days from a friend. I also missed out on subsequent reissues of the work on The Art of Eileen Joyce HMV OXLP2900254 and latterly Eileen Joyce in Pearl (GEMM CD 9022).

It was to be nearly thirty years until I heard it again on the remarkable Eileen Joyce - The Complete Parlophone and Columbia Solo Recordings 1933-1945 issued on APR 7502. In 2018, Decca Eloquence released a 10-CD boxed set, Eileen Joyce: The Complete Studio Recordings (ELQ4826291). Clearly, by definition, the Fantasie-Impromptu and the Berceuse were included here. 

It was to be nearly thirty years until I heard it again on the remarkable Eileen Joyce - The Complete Parlophone and Columbia Solo Recordings 1933-1945 issued on APR 7502. In 2018, Decca Eloquence released a 10-CD boxed set, Eileen Joyce: The Complete Studio Recordings (ELQ4826291). Clearly, by definition, the Fantasie-Impromptu and the Berceuse were included here.

 The Internet is replete with the history and analysis of Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu. However, a few comments and notes may of interest. It was composed between 1833 and 1834 but remained unpublished until after the composer’s death. The autograph score is dated ‘Paris Vendredi 1835’. It was long wondered why Chopin withheld this work. Arthur Hedley (Chopin, London, 1947) posited that the reason was that that main theme and formal construct bore too much resemblance to Ignaz Moscheles’s Impromptu in Eb, op.89. Another theory put forward by Ernst Oseter (1947) was that Chopin detected similarities with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op.27, no.2 ‘Moonlight’ and therefore chose not to publish it.

The work is now regarded as having been dedicated to Mme d’Esté. (Baroness Frances Sarah d'Est née Kibble). Fortunately, an exceptionally precious album belonging to the baroness has been preserved. This was re-discovered by Anton Rubenstein in 1960. In this Album, next to entries by Cherubini, Rossini, famous singers Rubini, Lablache, and pianists - Moscheles and Hiller, there is an Impromptu in C sharp minor [Op. 66]. This is in Chopin’s handwriting. The premiere of the Fantasie-Impromptu was given by Marcelina Czartoryska in Paris, during March 1855.

From the early days of Chopin scholarship, the work has received mixed reviews. The nineteenth century musicologist, Frederick Niecks, was dead against the publication of Chopin’s posthumous works, but in the case of the Fantasie-Impromptu considered that ‘he would not like to have lost this piece’. He styled it the most valuable of the posthumous publications made by Julian Fontana in 1855. However, Niecks did not advance excuses of plagiarism as the reason for Chopin withholding the piece. He wrote ‘I suspect he missed in it, especially in the middle section, that degree of distinction and perfection of detail which alone satisfied his fastidious taste.’ A later critic, James Huneker, (Chopin: The Man and his Music, London, 1901) felt that the trio section was ‘saccharine and mawkish’. Critics never agree.

The Gramophone (February 1940, p.323) reporting on the 1939 Parlophone release, is fulsome in praise insisting that ‘this record may be in every way highly recommended.’ The unsigned reviewer considered that ‘the ‘Berceuse’ is tenderly and beautifully played.’ The critic felt that ‘undoubtedly, the first section of the posthumous Impromptu is the best. Miss Joyce plays it with delightful verve and sparkle: and with exemplary clarity.’ Contrariwise, they considered that ‘she cannot save the trio from dullness, but she certainly saves it from sentimentality and…its slight longeurs [a tedious passage in a book or a piece of music] only make more welcome the return of the first part.’ Not an opinion I would agree with: Joyce’s playing of the middle section is, for me, near perfect.

Moving forward into the 21^st century, Christopher Howell, reviewing the APR CD for MusicWeb International (12 March 2010) suggested that ‘The Fantaisie-Impromptu has marvellous impetus in the outer sections and the middle section is warmly done. The Berceuse is very nicely handled, again warm if a little plain.’ In his review of the Eileen Joyce: The Complete Studio Recordings, Stephen Greenbank considers that ‘Chopin is represented by a dazzling Fantasie Impromptu, and thankfully she [Joyce] doesn't over-gild the lily in the romantic middle section. The Berceuse is a gentle lullaby, where sensitive pedalling achieves a pearl-like sonority with rich pastel shades’. (MusicWeb International, May 2018).

Listening to Eileen Joyce’s performance displays a remarkably fresh performance of the opening section of Fantasie Impromptu with its rhythmical difficulties beautifully handled. As for the trio she brings sweetness and beauty. I can do no better than echo the opinion of the reviewer in the Liverpool Daily Post (22 February 1940) who insisted that Eileen Joyce has released a ‘wonderfully dexterous record of the Berceuse and Fantaisie Impromptu of Chopin’ [complete with] miraculous finger work.’ Add to this a sensitive and always beautiful interpretation, makes this my ‘go to’ version of this wonderful, if hackneyed, piece.

Eileen Joyce’s 1939 performance of Frederic Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, op.66 can be heard on YouTube, as well as the records and CDs noted above. Do not let a bit of hiss spoil enjoyment of this stunning recital.