Notes for: August 7, 2012
During Schubert’s lifetime, an increasing number of middle-class Viennese families could afford to buy pianos. Since these families often included two or more piano players and the cost of a second piano was prohibitive, the market for “piano four hand” sheet music for home performance was particularly fruitful. This genre of hausmusik, in fact, became a primary source of income for Schubert, and four-hand music accounted for a higher proportion of his instrumental compositions in print during his lifetime than any other genre.
Given his gift for melody and his resourcefulness at the keyboard, Schubert was particularly good at four-hand piano music. The list of Schubert’s four-hand works in Grove’s Dictionary includes some of his most endearing pieces, ranging from a dozen military marches attractive to children to the Variations on an Original Theme in A- Flat Major, D. 813, one of the greatest sets of piano variations ever written. There is little question that Schubert was the greatest and most productive of all composers in this specialized field.
In addition to its commercial appeal, Schubert produced four-hand music for pedagogical purposes – that is, as teaching and performing vehicles to play with his pupils. In the case of this Fantasie, composed early in 1828, the piece was written for and dedicated to the Countess Karoline Esterhazy, a member of the Slovakian branch of the Hungarian family that Haydn had served as kapellmeister.
Ten years earlier, Schubert had served as tutor for Karoline and her sister Marie, then aged 12 and 15, and again in 1824. According to the memoirs of his friends, Schubert became infatuated with Karoline, and, while this emotion was unrequited, the flame continued to burn until Schubert’s death. Karoline once jokingly chided Schubert for not dedicating any piece to her. Schubert allegedly replied: “What is the point? Everything is dedicated to you anyway.”
Schubert recognized the quality of the piece – arguably his finest four-hand work. In February 1828, he included it in a package of works submitted to B. Schott’s Sons, a publisher in Mainz, as an example of “my strivings after the highest in art.” However, because of the work’s difficulty in performance, Schott selected other items in the package for publication, and the Fantasie was not published until March 1829, three months after his death, carrying the dedication to Karoline.
A “fantasy” -- sometimes appearing as “fantasia”, “phantasie” or “fantasie” -- is a term dating from the Renaissance for an instrumental composition in which the composer’s imagination is not restricted to any particular musical form or design. In Schubert’s day, it became a stylistic bridge between the traditional sonata form with four distinct movements and the essentially free-form tone poem. In this case, the Fantasie is divided into four movements, but they are interconnected and played without pause, and are seasoned with the abrupt shifts in key that were a Schubert trademark.
The first movement, allegro molto moderato, opens with a lyrical theme in F minor with dotted rhythms, surely one of the most moving melodies in Schubert. The theme is eventually repeated in F major, briefly repeated in F minor, and the music transitions into a somber, almost funereal, second theme. After development of the two themes, the second theme returns somewhat modified, and then modulates into F minor for the start of the second movement.
The second movement, largo, opens with an angry, turbulent, fortissimo theme in F minor, whose double-dotted rhythm introduces a great deal of tension. Eventually the theme gives way to a quiet, lyrical second theme. The first theme returns, ending on a C-sharp major dominant and pause.
The third movement, allegro vivace, is a bright, lively scherzo in the same key, F minor, as the second movement. After a delicate D major trio, the scherzo returns, at first seemingly in F minor. However, the repeat of the scherzo shifts between A major and F minor, ultimately ending on octaves that transition back toward F minor for the finale.
After another pause, the finale, allegro molto moderato, begins with a restatement of the first movement’s primary theme in both F minor and F major, leading to a fugue based on its second theme. The fugue builds to a climax, ending abruptly on the C major dominant, instead of resolving into either F major or minor. After a bar of silence, the first theme briefly returns, building rapidly to concluding chords that echo the second theme before subsiding into a quiet end.