Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/28/2004, uploaded on 01/14/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Some uncertainty surrounds the composition of Mendelssohn’s Fantasy in F sharp minor, op. 28. It is known that the final manuscript was completed in 1833. Though, references in letters to his sister of a “Sonata ecossaise” (Scottish Sonata) suggest the piece may have been composed as early as 1828. This date, however, places the conception of the work prior to his 1829 visit to Scotland, ruling out the possibility of the Scottish countryside as the inspiration of the piece, as was the case with the Scottish Symphony and Hebrides Overture. When the piece was published in 1834, Mendelssohn replaced its original title with “Phantasie.”

Consisting of three movements, the Fantasy in F sharp minor falls into the category of the fantasy-sonata. Following in the pattern of Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight” Sonata, each movement of Mendelssohn’s Fantasy adopts a quicker tempo than the preceding one. A foreboding air opens the first movement with the sound of a low pedal F sharp over which sweeping arpeggios traverse the compass of the piano. Following this introduction, a melancholy Andante tune forms the principal melody of the movement. Despite its reserved beginning, the music becomes increasingly more agitated. The middle section returns to the mysterious arpeggios of the opening, this time forcing the appearance of different tonalities and the adoption of a more improvisatory character. Over a quickly rising chromatic scale, the principal melody returns with passionate distress but eventually subsides into the same melancholic demeanor of the opening.  A brief return of the agitated middle section and a lone, monophonic statement of the melody conclude the movement.

After a pause on the final note of the first movement, the second movement begins without further break. A lively Allegro in cut-time and the key of A major, it is a movement somewhere on the cusp of a scherzo. The brief opening melody frames a longer middle section in D major, which features a moto perpetuo of constant eighth notes, first in the bass then moving to the treble. Following the last chord of the middle Allegro, the Presto finale begins after only a brief pause. Fiery and passionate, the final movement embraces the struggles and tensions of a full-fledged sonata form. A cantabile melody in A major, offset by a persistent and restless bass, follows the disjunct first theme. The development section relentlessly takes hold of a motif heard in the closing bars of the exposition, driving the music on with feverish passion. Following the recapitulation of both themes, the coda takes up the same motif from the development. A descending scale and a thunderous trill in the lowest reaches of the piano bring about the final chords of the piece.    Joseph DuBose

Fantasy in f-sharp minor, Op.28             Felix Mendelssohn

Con moto agitato; Allegro con moto; Presto

Subtitled the "Scottish Sonata", this major work has remained relatively unfamiliar, although it deserves to make its way back into the standard repertoire. The slow first movement opens with a rhapsodic introductory passage that recurs several times, interrupting the ballad-like development of the main theme. The second movement is a scherzo, reminiscent of the charming themes of Schubert, and the last movement is a fiery, impetuous, and virtuosic example of Mendelssohn's dynamic style.   Grace Nikae

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.