SCHUBERT FOUR HAND PIANO MUSIC Fantasias, Rondos, Variations and Marches
There is a prodigeous quantity of Schubert four hand piano music. The best known are the 3 Marches Militaires (in D major, G major and E-flat major, Op 51, D 733), the Sonata in C major ("Grand Duo", Op. posth. 140, D 812), and, perhaps the most famuous of all, the Fantasy in F minor (Op. 103, D 940). It is with this last named that we will begin our exploration of Schubert four hand piano music.
The Fantasia was composed in the last year of Schubert's life. It is quite a long piece in four connected movements, i Allegro molto moderato ii Largo iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato, similar in structure to Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy. In these works Schubert moves away from the stricter sonata form and anticipates the free form tone poems of the romantic era. It is a magnificent work and one of my very favorites.
Several excellent performances are offered below including a lovely interpretation by Emil Gilels and his daughter Elena, one by Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten, very martial, very beautiful, and a two hand version played by Maria Grinberg. The classic performances by Demus & Badura-Skoda and Eschenbach & Frantz are the most Schubertian and the least "interpreted" of the lot.
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Emil & Elena Gilels
Part I
Part II
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Sviatoslav Richter & Benjamin Britten Recorded live in 1965
i Allegro molto moderato
ii Largo
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Murray Perahia Radu & Lupu
i Allegro molto moderato
ii Largo iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Paul Badura-Skoda & Jörg Demus
i Allegro molto moderato ii Largo
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Christoph Eschenbach & Justus Frantz
i Allegro molto moderato ii Largo
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Lang Lang & Marc Yu
i Allegro molto moderato ii Largo
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Next are several incomplete performances. The first, by the sisters Labeque, is stunning, certainly unorthodox, and the only one in which both Primo and Secondo parts participate with an unusual equality of interpretative significance. The resultant counterpoint is to die for. The performance by Brendel & Crochet is quite lovely, the detail exquisite.
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Katia & Marielle Labeque i Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Alfred Brendel & Evelyne Crochet i Allegro molto moderato
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 Maria João Pires & Ricardo Castro
i Allegro molto moderato
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Fantasia in F Minor D 940 (arr. for two hands) Maria Grinberg
i Allegro molto moderato ii Largo
iii Scherzo. Allegro vivace iv Finale. Allegro molto moderato
Below we have the Divertimento D 823 for Piano 4 Hands in a wonderful performance by Polonsky & Weiss. However stylistically more traditional than the Labques' playing, this performance is also one in which there seems to be no secundo part in the creation of the whole.
This is followed by the Rondo in A Major D 951 in a performance by Artur Schnabel and his son, Karl Ulrich, and a selection of Schubert four hand piano music. The Divertissement à la Hongroise is another exciting and non-traditional performance by Nakagawa & Park.
Divertissement sur les Motifs Originaux Française, D 823 Andantino Varié Anna Polonsky & Orion Weiss
Rondo in A Major D951 Artur & Karl Ulrich Schnabel Recorded in 1937
Marches Characteristiques D968b No 1 in C Major
Evgeny Kissin & James Levine Recorded live in 2006
Eduardo Jordão & João Vasco
Marches Militaires D733 No 1 in D Major
Evgeny Kissin & James Levine Recorded live in 2006
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