For this week, I chose a piece by a composer with whom I am very familiar, Franz Schubert (who has two works on my list of Top 100 Classical Music Favorites, his Unfinished Symphony and his Piano Trio No. 2 in E Flat Major), and of course, this was a piece by Schubert that I had never heard before. In this case, the “Fantasie in F Sharp Minor” came to me as one of those recommended videos in the queue of suggestions in the right column when you watch a YouTube video. I believe I was watching and listening to a video of Muzio Clementi’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major -- last week’s selection for this blog -- and there at the top right corner of the screen was Fantasie in F Minor, a work by Schubert which I had never heard. What was interesting, too, was that the the video showed two pianists at the piano. Was this work for one piano and four hands? Or was this just a version of a solo work arranged as a duet? It turns out that, indeed, the Fantasie (or Fantasia) is for “piano four hands,” a work for two players at one piano. Composed in 1828, the last year of Schubert's life, the composer dedicated the piece to his pupil, Caroline Esterházy. The Fantasie is divided into four movements, that are played without pause:
I have now listened to the piece three times, and I love it. It is a beautiful piece -- but certainly a very mournful and grief-stricken piece. The Fantasie opens with a slow, lyrical melody that is very somber, almost funereal at times. The mood evokes some great loss, and it called to mind some lines by Emily Dickinson:
After great pain, a formal feeling comes – The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs The two pianists in the video reflected this mood, as they played with mournful anguish. There were points in the movement where the composition shifts to F Major, so there are sections where the work is not entirely solemn, but overall the mood of the piece reflects such loss that I wondered what in the world could have been going on in Schubert’s life at the time he wrote it? An article about Schubert on Wikipedia says, “By the late 1820s, Schubert's health was failing and he confided to some friends that he feared that he was near death. In the late summer of 1828, he saw the physician Ernst Rinna, who may have confirmed Schubert's suspicions that he was ill beyond cure and likely to die soon.” Was that on his mind when he composed the Fantasie? He did die in November of the year he composed the piece. He had also dedicated the work to his pupil, Caroline Esterházy, and a separate Wikipedia article about the Fantasie itself states that she was someone “with whom Schubert was in (unrequited) love.” Austrian dramatist Eduard von Bauemfeld, a close friend to Schubert, wrote the following: "He was, in fact, head over heels in love with one of his pupils, a young Countess Esterházy [...]. In addition to his lessons there, he also visited the Count's home, from time to time, under the aegis of his patron, the singer Vogl. [...] On such occasions Schubert was quite content to take a back seat, to remain quietly by the side of his adored pupil, and to thrust love's arrow ever deeper into his heart. [...] Countess Caroline may be looked upon as his visible, beneficent muse, as the Leonore of this musical Tasso." Supposedly the countess once teased Schubert that he had never dedicated a piece to her, and he replied, “Why do that? Everything is dedicated to you anyway.” He did, though, dedicate the Fantasie to her, so is the grave tone of the piece a reflection of his unrequited love? The second movement continues the somber mood of the piece, and it opens with fortissimo chords and trills “ben marcato,” with strong accentuation, before transitioning to a quieter lamentation. The third movement, a scherzo, is livelier -- and certainly much brighter than the rest of the piece -- but it is not long before is transitions into the final movement which restates the original, sorrowful theme from the start of the song. It them moves on to a fugue of a second theme from the first movement. According to the article in Wikipedia, “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 reprises, building rapidly to concluding chords that echo the second theme before subsiding into a quiet end. It has been called ‘the most remarkable cadence in the whole of Schubert's work,’ as he manages to condense the dichotomies of the two themes into the final eight bars of the work.” Evidently, musicologist Christopher Gibbs described the work as "among not only his greatest but his most original" compositions for piano duet -- and I would have to say that I second that statement.
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How did I land on Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major this week? In the past, I have listened to pieces I’ve never heard before, like Franck’s Symphony in D Minor, but most have been works I’ve never even heard of before, like Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” or Aaron Copland’s “Symphony for Organ and Orchestra.” I had no idea that Copland wrote a symphony or organ and orchestra. Who knew? For this week, though, I thought I’d listen to a piece that I have heard of, but one that I’ve not ever listened to. Schubert’s “The Trout” fit the bill. I’ve always heard about this piece, “The Trout,” but I’ve never actually listened to it or heard it at a concert. Of course, there is a chance that I’ve heard it play on the airwaves of a classical radio station, but if so, I don’t remember it. However, as you can see from my rating below, now that I have listened to it, I loved it.
The opening melody of the first movement (noted in the purple box below) lies between rippling triplet figures on the piano (noted in the red boxes below), an arpeggio motif that is then traded between the instruments as the melody flows from one player to another. In addition, a reliance on triplets throughout the movement keeps the mood brisk and buoyant with occasional shifts to sixteenth notes to further the piece’s effervescence. The second movement, marked andante, sustains the buoyancy of the piece with continued triplets and a pattern of sixteenth notes with dotted eighth notes that gives the movement a lilting bounce, and the third movement, a scherzo, maintains the energy of the piece with an upbeat tempo, staccato quarter notes, and an effectively jovial use of sforzandos. Of course, the fourth movement features variations on Schubert’s earlier song “Die Forelle,” and though the third variation is the most high-spirited of the set, the final variation brings in a graceful accompaniment line from “Die Forelle” utilizing five sixteenth notes of a double triplet (the first of six counts being a rest) followed by two eighth notes which evokes a rippling, sparkling brook to be sure. There’s a dramatic twist or two in the final movement brought on by some accentuated chords, a few minor tones and some powerful dynamics. Still, the piece maintains its brilliance and bounce thanks to those ever-present triplets and playful rhythms with dotted eighth and sixteenth notes.
I thoroughly enjoyed Schubert's Piano Quintet in A Major, and listening to it certainly brought me to the realization that once this pandemic is over and things get back to normal (or as normal as possible), I need to attend more Chamber music concerts. : ) |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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