Week 1: A New Hope

Graeme Cameron Wilkinson Whoaaa! Can't wait to see/hear your progress on this! 

Graeme Cameron Wilkinson I imagine that one would remain an ongoing challenge for 99% of pianists. 😂 Didn’t Ravel have to ask Marguerite Long to play the première of this concerto because he couldn’t get it performance-ready in time? I think I remember reading something like that… At any rate: it’s a beast. Kudos! 

Graeme Cameron Wilkinson This is going to be epic!  Play it at Chet’s, please.  (Assuming there’s no airline strike in August, I pray…)

Marc M Can’t wait to hear you!

Mel I love this sonata! 😍

Mel Can’t wait to hear you!👍

Paul Larson Hi Paul! This is an absolute favourite of mine. I performed it several years ago in a faculty recital and still come back to it now and then. I actually enjoy Liszt's song transcriptions more than a good chunk of his own original repertoire! Looking forward to hearing your work on this fantastic piece =)

Dustin Anderson Thanks, I have work to do on it. 

Dustin Anderson 

Here are measures 1-22. 

https://youtu.be/b_yYmZtWGB4?feature=shared

Paul Larson Off to a great start Paul! Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to go play through it again =)

Doug The verdict is in but first come all the excuses and alibis and contractual negotiations.  Yes, the dog ate my homework.  Ahem.  And here is the real problem of Unfinished Business.  You see I'm ashamed to admit that I'm still technically working on all the Challenges from at least 2025 - Schubert, Debussy, Beethoven, Chopin, and earlier this year the Romantic Challenge just to mention a few.  Most importantly though I'll be away for at least two weeks throughout May.  Having said this, my intention is very much to effectively, one day share all this Unfinished Business (& once I figure out how to record myself).  As I can though I will be working away at this intently and also hopefully be able to encourage and support everyone else on this journey.  It is inspiring to see all the energy and wonderful selections of everyone else.

It was hard to decide but somehow it became clear that my new project for the next months will be Schumann: Fantasie Opus 17 in C major, 1st movement!

Doug Two Fantasies in C Major: the Schumann Fantasie and the Schubert Fantasie! 

I believe the Wandererfantasie actually inspired Schumann's Fantasie. 

Doug 

• What piece did you choose?
• Why this piece?
• Is there a musical challenge or goal you hope to work through this month?

And so I picked the piece and I may as well address the other questions.  Why?  I have been fascinated with this piece (and Robert Schumann) as of late and for many years technically I wasn't ready or able.  Time is a thief and so if not now, when?

At the top of the score is a short poem by Friedrich Schlegel:

Durch alle Töne tönet / Im bunten Erdentraum / Ein leiser Ton gezogen / Für den der heimlich lauschet 

Resounding through all the notes / In the earth's colourful dream / There sounds a faint long-drawn note / For the one who listens in secret.

[Thanks to Maria and some other online translation help I came to this interpretation.]

I also learned that initially Schumann intended to title this work:  Große Sonate von Florestan und Eusebius [Grand Sonata of Florestan and Eusebius].

I'm sure most everyone here must already know about Florestan and Eusebius?  This is all par for the course for most of the big works of Schumann and so I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to find those faint long-drawn notes conveyed in secret amongst the contrasting themes between these two alter-egos of Schumann, himself.  I can also guarantee that there are plenty of secret messages conveyed to Clara Wieck, his future wife, through these two characters. 

The middle contrasting section (Im Legendenton) from bars 129 and ending at 224 including the climax at bar 204 is very profound (to me). 

I am going to enjoy the many details and trying to discover all the little buried treasure along the way.  If I only discover 20% of what's here I'll be quite happy. 

The initial difficulties are many but I'll focus on just a couple here now.  First, I have to work on my trills.  Bars 22 to 27 give me grief because I want them to be pianissimo (and even) so this is one of the first challenges.

Second challenge and maybe one of the greatest key moments in this movement is in bars 41 - 48.  Left hand articulation is quite hard (for me) and so I think most of the work will be here.  A similar moment comes again in bars 233 to 240.  Intuitively I know that these two short sections will get more attention alone than many pages of music before and after because these sections especially key and rather important and so I'll always be worried about messing them up (which of course with Murphy's Law will be the challenge not to).

Overall, the majority of the challenge seems to be in the left hand and I'm ready to face this head on. 

By the way, this Fantasie is dedicated to Franz Liszt!  Apparently, when Schumann presented this work to him, Liszt just sight read through perfectly and praised it quite highly.

Doug Well, here is a bad sign.  I just spent a little more time with a post explaining why I chose the piece and few difficulties and Tonebase locked the post Pending Review.  So, for anyone interested check back in a week for yesterday's news :-(

Doug It's obvious that all my passion for the piece overheated all the AI circuits !

 ;-)