The Fantasy for violin and piano in C major, D. 934 (posthumous op. 159), is a chamber music piece composed by Franz Schubert in December 1827. It is titled Fantaisie für Pianoforte u. Violin on the autograph score.

It is the Austrian composer's sixth and final work for the ensemble of violin and piano alone, following the three Sonatas D 384, 385, and 408 (usually grouped under the collective title Sonatinas, op. post. 137), the Duo D 574, and the Rondo D 895. While the first four works are relatively easy to perform, the Rondo and the Fantasy were written for the Bohemian violinist and celebrated virtuoso of the time Josef Slavík (who was the dedicatee of the former and the likely commissioner of the latter), and they are famous for their difficulty. In the case of the Fantasy, the technical difficulty reaches extreme levels for both the violin part and the piano part. In this regard, the Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky has stated that it is the "most difficult music ever written for the piano, [...] more difficult than all of Rachmaninoff's concertos put together." The difficulty of the piece has severely limited its public performance, and consequently its popularity, and for a certain period, it also limited its critical reception.

Critical Reception

The first performance of the piece took place on January 20, 1828, in the Landhaussaal in Vienna, with Josef Slavík on violin and Carl Maria von Bocklet on piano. The chronicles of the time report that Bocklet's performance was good, but Slavík's was disappointing, and in general, the concert was such a failure that the hall gradually emptied during the performance of the piece itself. Even the music critics did not stay until the end, unable to tolerate the length of the work, its uninterrupted display of virtuosity, and its highly unusual structure. These very characteristics would later ensure that the Fantasy was rarely performed and thus remained little-known, which further contributed to undermining the work's reputation for over a century.

After almost 150 years, the piece was still plagued by unflattering judgments, such as those of Boris Schwarz, who in 1971 called certain violin passages "practically unplayable," or Alfred Brendel, who in his 1976 essay The Performer's Paradox disparages the piece (without even naming it) when compared to Schubert's other late works.

Since the end of the 20th century, the Fantasy has begun to be reconsidered in a different light, and it is now widely considered a masterpiece of late Schubert due to its very high expressive and technical values. In particular, the first movement is often celebrated for its "spectral and tremulous character, which then leads into a lyrical and virtuosic territory."

Structure

The work is in seven sections/movements:

1. Andante molto (C major, 6/8 time)

2. Allegretto (A minor, 2/4 time)

3. Tema e Variazioni — Andantino-Adagio (A♭ major, 3/4 time)

4. Tempo I (C major, 6/8 time)

5. Allegro vivace (C major, cut time)

6. Allegretto (A♭ major, 3/4 time)

7. Presto (C major, cut time)

The third movement contains a reworking of the 1822 Lied Sei mir gegrüßt! D 741, in the form of a theme and variations.

Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasia_per_violino_e_pianoforte_(Schubert) / License: CC BY-SA 4.0