FRANZ SCHUBERT – FERENC LISZT

In 1822, Franz Schubert wrote a four-movement work for solo piano – Fantasy in C major, Op. 15, also known as Wandererfantasie. This composition is often regarded as one of the Austrian composer’s most complex scores requiring the highest level of mastery from the performer. Schubert is said to have joked to his friends that “only the devil could play this music”. The structure of fantasy is also confusing. Each movement ends with cadenza leading to the next movement, a sonata form is combined with variations, each movement starts with a variation on the melody of F. Schubert’s lied Der Wanderer. Ferenc Liszt, the legendary Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso, admired this work immensely. He transcribed the Wandererfantasie (Wanderer Fantasy) for piano and orchestra as well as for two pianos. Liszt carefully adhered to the foundation of Schubert’s work and allowed himself only slight adornment of the musical material. In his transcription, the piano part gracefully intertwines with the orchestra. Often the main phrases, as in a conversation, alternate between the piano and the orchestra – the soloist accompanies the themes of the orchestra with virtuoso passages or presents the themes in solo part.

Rarely performed in Lithuania, Schubert-Liszt’s Wandererfantasie (Wanderer Fantasy) features piano maestra Mūza Rubackytė and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Italian baton master Renato Balsadonna.