Fantasie in F Minor

Schubert was one of the few great composers who was not only drawn to write for piano duet, but also produced masterpieces in a creative medium that was generally considered beneath serious consideration. He produced more than 30 opuses in all, ranging from rondos, sets of variations and collections of dances to marches, ländlers (rustic folk dances) and overtures. Yet one work stands out as possibly the finest ever composed for four hands at one piano: the Fantasie in F minor D. 940. Composed in 1828, the final year of Schubert’s tragically short life, and dedicated to one of his favourite piano pupils, Countess Karoline Esterházy, the Fantasie turned the genre on its head. Far from providing a gentle excuse for courting musical couples to get a little closer, Schubert pours his heart out in one of his most searingly intense and agonised creations. In the manner of his groundbreaking solo piano Wanderer-Fantasie (1823), he also runs the four movements of a typical sonata—“Allegro”, “Largo”, “Scherzo” and “Finale”—together as one single, continuous structure. Recognising its importance, a group of dedicated supporters gathered enough money to get the Fantasie published, four months after Schubert’s death.