La bella capricciosa, polonaise in B flat major, op. 55
Romantic Polonaise Piano solo ~5 min
In brief

La Bella capricciosa comes across as a lively, somewhat dramatic polonaise: it alternates dance-like passages with crisp attacks and lyrical episodes that demand theatrical forward motion rather than mere grace. Technically, you will need to focus on the Passages rapides (4.3/5) — here meaning clean fingering, even articulation and relaxed hand muscles to preserve clarity — and the Octaves (4.3/5), which call for coordinated wrist and hand control to produce clear attacks without tension. Placed in the Romantic period, this polonaise belongs to Hummel's output for solo piano that engages the 19th-century salon and virtuosic tradition while retaining links to earlier classical models. I do not give a recommended recording because I am not certain of a single authoritative interpretation for this specific piece.

Listen to this work

No verified recording for this work yet. We add more every week.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
60/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 48–72/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Relative difficulty
49%
Among Johann Nepomuk Hummel
55%
Era Romantic
52%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Octaves
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
Rhythm
Dotted rhythms
1
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression