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JOAQUÍNACHÚCARRO 15
“You can only understand this
Fantasie
when you think back to
the unhappy summer of 1836, when I abandoned you; now I have
no reason to compose such unhappy and melancholy music.”
Schumann confided to Clara in 1839 just as the work was published, with a
dedication to Franz Liszt…
The result was far different from what Schumann’s had originally in mind for
the project—a composition representing the life of the author of
Fidelio
–, “as if
Beethoven’s image combined with his desire for the beloved object and enabled
him to findwhat he had been so ardently seeking inmusic at the time: an infallible,
personal way of ordering the successive moments of
Humor
, a way different from
short pieces or a mosaic”, Rémy Stricker aptly observes.
In fact, one year following the completion of
Sonata
no. 1 in F sharpminor, op. 11 and
as an immediate extension of the
Sonata
n° 3 in F minor, op 14 (“Concerto without
orchestra”), the
Fantasie
in C major represented a crucial step in mastering the vast
form. From the“deep lament” driving the first movement to the restrained, magical
poetry of the third episode following the heroic energy of the central section, Opus
17 is fascinating in its structural and expressive coherence.
Liszt was not mistaken when, as early as June 1839 he thanked Schumann with
these words.
“The
Fantasie
dedicated tome is a work of the highest order—I am
really proud of the honor you have done me in dedicating to me so
grand a composition.”