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.
Notes for: August 6, 2024
Today’s program features two late-Schubert favorites plus an intriguing 20th-century homage to his work.
While Classical music was heard mainly in the homes of the aristocracy, by Schubert’s time music was being taken up by the bourgeoisie. Middle- class families often included members who played instruments, households frequently had a piano, and domestic musical evenings flourished. Schubert’s amiable band of friends – they called themselves the Schubertians – gathered frequently to hear his music, in evening get- togethers that became known as Schubertiads. Of course there were songs for these evenings, often with Schubert singing (his friends described his voice as “weak but very agreeable”). There were also many solo works for the piano, including marches and duets for four hands. In May 1828, Schubert and the composer Franz Lachner performed the composition that one critic called the “crowning glory” of Schubert’s piano duets: The Fantasie in F Minor.
The intense and emotional Fantasie opens with a memorable melody, ends with a massive fugue, and is marked by dynamic contrasts and moods that range from soulful to fierce. Throughout, it is distinguished by Schubert’s melodic genius and mastery of modulation. The fantasie (or fantasy) genre had its own distinctive format. Unlike sonatas or symphonies, which were divided into discreet sections, the fantasy was written in a single continuous stretch, with sonata-like components that were linked by a common thread. The F Minor Fantasie follows a sonata pattern, with four sections: an opening allegro, a slow movement, a scherzo, and a closing fugue. The connecting thread is the song-like opening melody, which returns several times.
The Fantasie opens simply, with a wistful melody played over a broken- chord accompaniment. The key soon shifts from minor to major – the first of Schubert’s many ingenious modulations – before a sterner second theme is introduced; you’ll hear this melody again in the fugue. The movement ends quietly when the opening melody returns and then leads without pause into a stormy Largo. Again there are dramatic mood shifts, with the stern, chordal opening theme, with its jagged rhythm, briefly interrupted by a carefree, major-key, flowing melody. Schubert builds tension with the Largo and then abruptly releases it with the arrival of a spirited scherzo, which has a charming trio in the middle in the unexpected kay of D Major. Here, as in the rest of the Fantasie, the deftness with which Schubert modulates from key to unexpected key is striking. The opening melody returns once more as the bridge to the Fantasie’s most complex movement: a fugue built from the opening section’s second subject. There is an enormous contrapuntal climax, a pause, and then the exhausted return of the melody that first set the Fantasie in motion. The work ends stunningly with a final bleak cadence.