Fantaisie-Impromptu in C♯ minor

Chopin composed the Fantaisie-Impromptu in 1834 but never published it during his lifetime; the piece appeared posthumously as Op. 66 (Julian Fontana's editorial number) in 1855 and immediately entered the repertoire. The piece sits at the centre of the popular Chopin canon — a virtuoso study in cross-rhythm with a famously lyrical D♭-major middle section that became a standard parlour reduction.

Technically the piece tests three Grade 7 priorities at a serious level: a continuous, even right-hand sixteenth-note pattern across two pages, a left-hand triplet pattern that runs against the right hand's sixteenths (the famous four-against-three texture), and a singing middle section in D♭ major that needs cantabile shaping. The cross-rhythm at the opening and close is the piece's central technical challenge — the two hands must each hold their own rhythmic line without one infecting the other.

Two pitfalls. First, the cross-rhythm often gets played as a uniform sextuplet (the hands snap to a common subdivision); aim instead for two genuinely independent rhythmic lines. Practise each hand alone with a metronome, then carefully re-combine. Second, the central D♭-major section often gets pedalled too thickly; aim for a clean pedal change on each chord change.

The piece is on IMSLP in clean public-domain editions including Fontana's first edition. Hearing the canonical recordings (Rubinstein and Pollini are reference points) calibrates the right cross-rhythm precision.