Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 02/24/2016, uploaded on 09/10/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Schubert's Fantasy in C major, better known as the “Wanderer” Fantasy, is one of his most well-known and technically challenging compositions for piano. It was composed in November 1822, the same year he began work on the “Unfinished” Symphony. Cast in a four movement pattern mimicking the usual arrangement of a sonata, the movement are played without break between them. The motivic germ of the piece, from which the themes of each movement are derived, is taken from Schubert's own 1816 Lied Der Wanderer. Hence, the Fantasy's nickname.

The opening Allegro is almost obsessively concerned with motif's dactylic rhythm, a favorite of Schubert's. Schubert traverses a wide range of keys in his treatment of the motif's rhythm as it is continuously set against sweeping scales and sixteenth-note figurations. Only a melodic interlude towards the end of the movement manages to draw attention partially away from the obsessive rhythm.

Following the fanfare-like opening movement, the Adagio is a set of variations on an almost direct quote of Der Wanderer. Beginning the foreign key of C-sharp minor, the variations waver between it and its parallel major. The motif is here extensively developed as the variations become more rhythmically active. The bass rumblings of the final variation form the transition into the ensuing Scherzo. 

Taking on a frenetic character, the Scherzo borrows much of its material from the first movement. In this regard, it has often been thought analogous to the Scherzo of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29. The coda takes on an improvisatory nature, introducing triplet arpeggios over the Scherzo's dominant rhythmic motif. A sudden stop on a half cadence in C major announces the arrival of the Finale.

The Finale begins as a fugue based around the Fantasy's rhythmic motif. While the fugal texture is more or less maintained throughout, the movement soon, however, dissolves into a virtuoso showpiece. The tonic key of C major is virtually maintained throughout the whole movement and the dactylic motif is also ever to the fore. A gradual crescendo of broken chords and thunderous descending arpeggios bring the “Wanderer” Fantasy to a dramatic close.      Joseph DuBose

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Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, Wanderer Fantasy (20’)                                                   Schubert

Franz Schubert famously said “the devil may play it” about his incredibly difficult four-movement Wanderer Fantasy, Op.15. Composed in 1822, this beautiful and structurally elaborate composition is based on the opening melody of Schubert's lied "Der Wanderer". Each of the movements is a variation on the same tune of a different character, key and sonority. The four movements are performed without a break, creating a shape that combines theme-and-variations with sonata form.

First movement is an energetic “Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo” in C major. Second movement, “Adagio” in C sharp minor is itself a set of theme and variations, the last of them being a mysterious transition to the next section. The third movement “Presto” is a brilliant scherzo in A flat major with a contrasting, serene trio in D flat major. The level of virtuosity starts to increase with a return of the main scherzo theme, preparing the entrance of the fourth movement, “Finale,” a furious fugato that returns the piece to the original key of glorious and insurmountable C major.

Inspired by the Wanderer Fantasy’s dazzling colors and variety of emotions, Franz Liszt wrote a transcription of it for piano and orchestra.    Asiya Korepanova

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.