Maximilian Schairer's Top Five: Piano Fantasies
In an exclusive playlist, on the occasion of the release of his current album "GLOAMING" in co-production with BR-Klassik, the pianist presents a selection of his favorite recordings from the diverse world of piano fantasies, which he has recorded on "GLOAMING" or performed in concert.
Read more…Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Fantasy for Piano in D minor KV 397 – Maria João Pires
Mozart was famous for his ingenuity at the piano. It is said that he improvised passionately and for hours on a theme. The D minor Fantasy breaks off after measure 97. Several composers completed the piece. Pires has studied Mozart intensively. This recording sounds like a dialogue with Mozart. The result is an elegant and sensitive as well as flowing interpretation.
Frédéric Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor op. posth. 66 B. 87 – Daniil Trifonov
Op. posth 66 is exciting in many respects. First, because of the double title, which emphasizes the free character of the piece, but which was written by Chopin's friend Julian Fontana. An impromptu, like a fantasia, is an improvised character piece, though the impromptu usually has a rondo form, while the fantasia is free in form, meter and tempo. Second, because of the polyrhythm, where both hands layer two different rhythms on top of each other. Then because of the etude-like, passionately rushing main section and the special combination of stormy virtuosity with lyrical songfulness. Here Chopin's passion for song resonates. The restlessness and nervousness that prevail from the beginning eventually coalesce into harmony.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Piano No. 14 in C-sharp minor op. 27/2 "Moonlight Sonata" – Friedrich Gulda
As with Chopin's Op. posth 66, Op. 27/2 was given the epithet "Moonlight Sonata" not by Beethoven himself, but by the music publicist Ludwig Rellstab, who likened the first movement to a nocturnal boat ride in the shimmering moonlight. In his sonatas titled 'Sonata quasi una fantasia' op. 27, which means "sonata in the manner of a fantasy", Beethoven experiments with new forms of composition, such as the atypical slow sonata beginning, the increase in tempo from movement to movement, and the shift of thematic emphasis to the finale. It is Beethoven's most frequently performed sonata. And yet it is puzzling for performers, since the autograph does not clearly define an exact playing instruction for the beginning of the 1st movement. There is also the question of association.
Franz Schubert: Fantasy for piano in C major op. 15 D 760 "Wanderer Fantasy" – Alfred Brendel
Based on the melody of the song "Der Wanderer," Schubert's piano fantasy proved to be the most pianistically difficult and structurally advanced music he had ever composed. A large-scale, disguised sonata with concert-like effect, which justifies the designation Fantasie with its freedoms in the inner design. Schubert had to admit to himself that with the 'Wanderer Fantasy' he had written a work that exceeded his own pianistic possibilities. Brendel consistently transforms the piano into an orchestra in Schubert's 'Wanderer Fantasy'.
Alexander Scriabin: Sonata-Fantasy for Piano No. 2 in G-sharp minor op. 19 – Sviatoslav Richter
There is hardly any other work that so vividly reproduces a natural event. According to Scriabin's own statement, this sonata describes his impressions of marine atmospheres: a moonlit night on the seashore, then the stormy moving ocean. His popular composition has similarities in style and tonality to Chopin. Playing Scriabin presents some challenges for performers, especially with regard to Scriabin's color-sound associations. Richter's recording beautifully displays the mystical-suggestive sound imagery with the floating moods.