Demonstration - Mozart's Fantasie in D minor, KV 397

Ivona Kaminska Bowlby performs Mozart's Fantasie in D minor, KV 397

Fantasy in D minor, K.397 (1782) by W.A. Mozart belongs to one of his most popular and accessible piano pieces. It is broadly believed that the compositions in minor keys were of much more personal nature for composers of the Classical period. Often given to young performers due to its technical accessibility, this piece yet calls for incredible depth of musicality and broad imagination that often makes it less so.

The key of D minor — the key of Mozart’s now famous “Requiem” — already suggests some of the most dark intensity of expression. This work is written in cut time (₵, or “alla breve”), which suggests that performers should think of the musical flow in terms of two large beats rather than 4 slow beats. Perhaps this is often not taken into consideration by many of those who choose an extremely slow pace that for sure is not representing the meter.

The use of the word, “fantasy”, in the title suggests an improvisatory style in the opening and the other more free-flowing fragments. Following in the tradition of its finest 18th-century fantasies predecessors, the free and improvisatory parts are interspersed with fragments that suggest a much more strict approach to the tempo.

There is no extant manuscript of this piece, and it is widely believed that the last part was written by Mozart’s admirer, August Eberhard Müller. In the last section of the piece in D major, one can hear the predilection for Mozart’s operatic style that comprises both aria-like fragments, juxtaposed to recitative and orchestral-like sections.