Fantasiestücke, Op.111

Sehr rasch, mit leidenschaftlichem Vortrag -

Ziemlich langsam -

Kräftig und sehr markirt

Of Schumann’s four sets of Fantasiestücke - the title derives from a favourite book by E.T.A. Hoffmann - the two for piano solo date from opposite ends of his career. The eight pieces of Op.12 were written in 1837, between the Fantaise in C major and the Davidsbündlertänze; the three pieces of Op.111 followed fourteen years later when, troubled already by the symptoms of his final illness, he had only two years of creativity left to him.

At the beginning of August 1851 the Schumanns had just returned to Düsseldorf from a happy couple of weeks in Switzerland. It was presumably in a refreshed state of of mind after this “ best holiday ever,” as Clara described it, that Robert felt that he could retrieve something of the youthful inspiration represented by his Fantasiestücke, Op.12. Certainly, the three new pieces were written very quickly. It is significant too that the Sehr rasch (“very quick”) first movement of the new set makes a clear thematic allusion to In der Nacht, his favourite in the Op.12 set. Although there is no equivalent here of the amorous middle section of In der Nacht, there is a similarly passionate impulse behind the two pieces.

Nothing by Schumann in his youth, on the other hand, comes as close to anything by Schubert as the Ziemlich langsam (“very slow”) movement in A flat major comes to the Moment Musical in the same key. Integrity is preserved by the quicker middle section, which recalls both the C minor tonality and something of the thematic material of the first piece. A Kräftig (“vigorous”) march in C minor - its plain speaking effectively offset by a more capricious trio section touching on A flat major hamonies from time to time - decisively seals the unity of the set.