A work upon which I have not made a previous extended comment, so for anyone passing by with an interest in this fine and slightly unusual piece, I offer the following thoughts. The Fantasia^ in C major (Hob. XVII:4) is a very rare occasion (March 1789) when we have a composer sit down at the keyboard, play a free Fantasia (in the manner of CPE Bach) off the top of his head then actually write it down for posterity. The improvisatory nature of this slightly madcap piece is clear from start to finish with fragments of the initial idea (an Austrian folk-song) being twisted and manipulated as through a distorting mirror and taken of into a myriad of different keys in a piece that is technically more difficult than Haydn suggested to his publisher when he offered it to him for 24 ducats ‘…the price is quite high, but I can guarantee you will make a profit from it’. ‘In a moment of great good humour I have completed a new Capriccio for fortepiano, whose taste,* singularity and special construction cannot fail to receive approval from connoisseurs and amateurs alike. It is …rather long, [it is in fact a very long 423 bars] but by no means too difficult’. Note: ‘for fortepiano’; many pieces were published at this time as for harpsichord or fortepiano (as did Haydn’s publisher in Vienna Artaria with this work) but this work is clearly a piano piece, and as is evident from the superb piano sonata in E flat (Hob. XVI:49) of 1789 also labelled on the autograph ‘per il fortepiano’, Haydn had long since had enough of the harpsichord. One obvious example of this pianistic writing occurs In bar 192 where Haydn instructs the player to hold the octave E’s in the bass ‘tenuto intanto finché non si sente più il suono’** which is clearly a pianisti device impossible on the harpsichord (bar 302 ‘tenuto come prima’ on different notes). ^ The word is Italian, and therefore - particularly for our friends in the English-speaking world - Fantasia is pronounced correctly: ‘Fan-tasz-*ee*-ah’ (Forget Disney). * An important word as it is one of the adjectives Haydn used in his encomium to Leopold Mozart about Wolfgang. ** ‘Held until one can no longer hear the sound’: probably about 15 seconds in Haydn’s time, 30 today; actually, just an extra long pause.
He is as witty as Haydn was. Delightful. Thank you!
Watching it on tv now. Missed when it was uploaded. Thank you. Beautiful!
Love those Haydn harmonic shifts, plus the almost Handelian runs in the left hand. Glorious!
A work upon which I have not made a previous extended comment, so for anyone passing by with an interest in this fine and slightly unusual piece, I offer the following thoughts.
The Fantasia^ in C major (Hob. XVII:4) is a very rare occasion (March 1789) when we have a composer sit down at the keyboard, play a free Fantasia (in the manner of CPE Bach) off the top of his head then actually write it down for posterity.
The improvisatory nature of this slightly madcap piece is clear from start to finish with fragments of the initial idea (an Austrian folk-song) being twisted and manipulated as through a distorting mirror and taken of into a myriad of different keys in a piece that is technically more difficult than Haydn suggested to his publisher when he offered it to him for 24 ducats ‘…the price is quite high, but I can guarantee you will make a profit from it’.
‘In a moment of great good humour I have completed a new Capriccio for fortepiano, whose taste,* singularity and special construction cannot fail to receive approval from connoisseurs and amateurs alike. It is …rather long, [it is in fact a very long 423 bars] but by no means too difficult’.
Note: ‘for fortepiano’; many pieces were published at this time as for harpsichord or fortepiano (as did Haydn’s publisher in Vienna Artaria with this work) but this work is clearly a piano piece, and as is evident from the superb piano sonata in E flat (Hob. XVI:49) of 1789 also labelled on the autograph ‘per il fortepiano’, Haydn had long since had enough of the harpsichord.
One obvious example of this pianistic writing occurs In bar 192 where Haydn instructs the player to hold the octave E’s in the bass ‘tenuto intanto finché non si sente più il suono’** which is clearly a pianisti device impossible on the harpsichord (bar 302 ‘tenuto come prima’ on different notes).
^ The word is Italian, and therefore - particularly for our friends in the English-speaking world - Fantasia is pronounced correctly:
‘Fan-tasz-*ee*-ah’
(Forget Disney).
* An important word as it is one of the adjectives Haydn used in his encomium to Leopold Mozart about Wolfgang.
** ‘Held until one can no longer hear the sound’: probably about 15 seconds in Haydn’s time, 30 today; actually, just an extra long pause.
Witty and light. I miss ultmate control of the instrument. But this is not what the pianist is looking for.
Funny I was admiring his control, which is impeccable.