Changyong Shin: Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasy

Changyong Shin, 2018 Bachauer Gold Medalist

Frédéric Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat Major, op. 61


About Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasy
Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849) composed and published the Polonaise-Fantaisie in 1846. It was what Jeffrey Kallberg has suggested represents his “last style,” a style that only includes the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the F minor mazurka (op. 68, No. 4), his last composition. The formal ambiguities of the piece (particularly the unconventional and musically misleading transitions into and out of the lyrical inner section) are the most significant defining qualities of this last style.

The work was slow to gain favor with musicians, due to its harmonic complexity and intricate form. The Polish musicologist, Zdzislaw Jachimecki (1882 – 1953), wrote, “The piano speaks here in a language not previously known.”

Although Chopin initially referred to the piece only as a Fantasy, it is indebted to the polonaise for its meter, much of its rhythm, and some of its melodic character. However, as in so many of Chopin’s compositions, the work invites the listener to engage the imagination as in a fantasy. Here we find Polish heroic gestures side by side with romantic melancholy, closest to a nocturne; the dignified élan of the polonaise accompanied by the melancholy reflection of the fantasy. Music that is wondrously songful, at first delicate, gentle, and idyllic; with each bar that passes, it gains in strength, like recollection animated by an influx of memory. Chopin leads the listener through shifting tracts of associations and memories, wandering through a succession of keys. And this all occurs as if in a dream, yet at the same time as if the destination were constantly known.

Feliks Jabłczyński, author of an essay on Chopin’s polonaises, wrote of the work’s emotional charge, “Neither the Eroica nor the Appassionata of Beethoven has a single section of such raging passion.”

– With acknowledgement to: Mieczysław Tomaszewski


About Changyong Shin
Changyong Shin is the first-prize winner of the 2018 Bachauer International Piano Competition, the 2017 Seoul International Music Competition, and the 2016 Hilton Head International Piano Competition.

A native of South Korea, Changyong Shin emigrated to the United States in 2011 at the age of 17 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree. He continued his studies at The Juilliard School where he earned a Master of Music degree in 2018 and completed the prestigious Artist Diploma degree in 2020.

Mr. Shin began his Performance career during his student years, with performances in South Korea, Italy, France, the UK, and across the United States. His performance invitations have included among others, a live broadcast recital for classical WQXR-FM’s Midday Masterpieces, the Barletta Piano Festival in Italy, the Ruhr Klavier-Festival in Germany, the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island, the Kumho Cultural Foundations’ Rising Star series, and appearances with orchestras including the Utah Symphony, the Hilton Head Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Buchehon Philharmonic Orchestra and Gwacheon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Shin released his debut CD on the Steinway & Sons label with works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. WXQR proclaimed the CD one of the “Best New Recordings of 2018.