Скачать или смотреть Fantasy, Op.77 - Ludwig van Beethoven

[Music starts at 2:33]
Today’s offering, Fantasy Op.77, is a relatively obscure piece by a very well-known composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Despite years of work in university music schools, I must confess that I first heard this piece at a master class with Peter Feuchtwanger in Huede, Germany in the summer of 2009. To the best of my recollection, I never even heard ABOUT the piece prior to that class. I really found the piece interesting, so I got the score, and it sat for 12 years, waiting for me to find the time to learn and play it. And so I have, at last.

I post it today to my #unknowncomposersworthhearing and #respite playlists, because it is so little known.

Beethoven’s student, Carl Czerny, himself a composer and pianist, is quoted in the release notes to the Henle edition of this piece, stating that the work, written in 1809, provides “a faithful portrayal of the way he [Beethoven] used to improvise”.

Based on my own analysis of the work, I find myself in agreement with Mr. Czerny, particularly with respect to the first third of the work. I also opine that in this piece Beethoven not only displayed his facility as an improviser (although he wrote down what he improvised for us here), but also as virtuoso pianist of his day. Very fast scale playing is used as well as an emphasis on the difference between loud (forte) and soft (piano) sounds, something not really possible on pianos prior to 1809.

I have chosen to emphasize the improvisatory quality of the piece in my playing of Beethoven’s written notes, particularly in the aforementioned first part of the piece.
Most of the remaining material in the piece is a set of variations in B Major after which Beethoven ties up his improvisations with a metaphorical bow by echoing the earlier descending scale passages that opened the piece.

In all, it is a rather remarkable, if largely unheard and underperformed work.
As always, I hope you find this piece and my playing of it worth hearing. Share, if so moved. More to come as I continue virus free, vaccinated (Pfizer – both shots!), hale and hearty. Best to you all as we ride this plague out.

Please help support this project and my #Respite and #UnknownComposersWorthHearing work by clicking on the paypal.me link, or using the @AndrewKrausPiano id on Venmo. No contracts, no pledges, no ongoing commitments, just a request to help me keep the music coming. Thanks for listening.

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Photo Credits:
Beethoven - Joseph Karl Sticler, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Peter Feuchtwanger and Andrew - Stefan Blido