Today’s video is about Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Written in 1822, this piece was a very influential work for the next generation of composers. In particular, Schubert’s use of cyclic form in this piece enormously influenced Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor.
The way Schubert handles the melodic material in this piece is uncharacteristic among his other longer works. He builds the piece from a handful of short, terse motives—developing, combining and expanding them in a marvelously intricate way. Usually, Schubert worked with song-like, long-breathed phrases that are often tied together in an almost dreamlike fashion—but not here!
Schubert’s compositional process in this piece is very similar to Beethoven. Appropriately, since Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 was a forerunner for this work in its use of a prototypical cyclic form.
I do a very detailed motivic analysis in the performance section of the piece. Don’t worry if all the subtleties are difficult to follow. The larger overall connections between the different movements are quite clear—but there are also more subtle connections that I try to also indicate for those of you who are interested in exploring a little deeper.
I also discuss some of the technical difficulties of the work—Schubert was famously unable to perform it satisfactorily himself, and pianists over the years have found various ways to deal with the almost finger-breaking awkwardness of Schubert’s virtuoso writing.
It turns out that Liszt, in addition to making an arrangement for piano and orchestra, also made a solo arrangement, which I also touch on in the video. I’ve never heard anyone perform this solo version before, so if there is interest, I will make another video with a complete performance of that version as well.