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he "Wanderer Fantasie", as it is known, was written almost five years earlier, between 1822 and 1823. The words of a line from the Schubertlied, "Der Wanderer", set the theme for the second movement, which, in turn, forms the central sequence of variations that make up the piece. This is a daring, orchestral-like work that is unique even in our times. It consists of four movements built around one rhythmic motif, with each movement flowing into the next without a break, thus turning the four into one whole entity. Although the title of "Wanderer Fantasie" was not Schubert's, the reference to the lied "Der Wanderer" is obvious because of the central theme of the piece. The dominant rhythm pattern also appears in other works by Schubert. Wandering ceaselessly, without ever stopping - this continuous flow ad infinitum pulls everything along with it. It is the wandering of our lives, the relentless flow of time - time, which, as a symbol in the arts, is perhaps best represented by music. This wandering may well be interrupted by dreams, as in the 2nd movement, but it remains an ungovernable force that cannot be escaped. At the end of the third movement, Schubert composed a tremendous crescendo of sound that was probably too much for the instruments of that time to cope with and which merges into a fugued fourth movement in octaves, where sound unfolds in all possible registers. The notes are distributed up and down the entire keyboard, and there are chord tremoli and octave runs galore, all of culminate in an untamed flood of sound in C major.

Franz Vorraber in November 2007

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n 1827, a year before his death, Franz Schubert wrote the Impromptus at the age of thirty. He grouped these eight pieces into two cycles with four impromptus in each, perhaps so they could be played individually or as a whole cycle.
The first Impromptu in C minor is an unusual piece. Beginning with on a long, drawn-out note, Schubert develops a unison melody that flows up and down in a triplet movement and which he then imbeds in a four-part chorale. The rhythm in this dark key of C minor is that of a march, probably a funeral march, and lends a tense atmosphere, something inescapable, to the whole. Block-like and with no transition, the unison passages are rather like a woodwind chorale and play side by side. The changes of key are abrupt and sudden. As if it were a memory, the motif reappears later in A flat major, the key of dreams and longing. During the entire piece, the contrasts are heightened and varied until the startling change to C major, which is totally unstable and glides again and again into C minor. Seldom do you find a composition where C major and C minor are so close to each other in such a small space. The first Impromptu ends in major, without losing this surreal mood.
In contrast to the march rhythm of the first Impromptu, the underlying rhythm of the second, written in E flat major, is in triple meter, with the second beat always stressed, just like the chime of a bell in answer to the heavy first stroke. Combined with the cascading runs played with the right hand and that start on a triple, the motif common to all four impromptus, this rhythm lends the E flat major impromptu its characteristic sound. In the middle section, Schubert heightens the bell chimes with double sforzati, which let the finally piece end in falling E flat minor runs during the closing measures.
The third Impromptu uses the Schubert "wanderer rhythm", combined with a continuous triplet movement in the melody, which is characterized this time by the falling triple. Even at this slow tempo, Schubert keeps this relentless pattern of movement going right to the end. Again, melodic phrases in the secondary voices, mainly from falling triplets - from G flat to E flat at the beginning, for example - give rise to changes in harmony that introduce a "dreamlike uncertainty" to the piece.
The cycle concludes with the Impromptu in A flat major, where the harmony at the start is rather like an unanswered question. It begins with an A flat minor chord break, leading into the dominant tune after an E flat major as a standing chord, which, without resolution, then flows into a pause. This is followed by a motif with a downward triplet movement, which can scarcely be seen as an answer to the question posed at the start. Schubert's rhythm here is similar to that of the second Impromptu, with stressed long notes on the second beat. Schubert uses these methods consistently to develop the character of the music and thus create perfect masterpieces. In the middle section in C sharp minor, he picks up the long second beat and puts it into the melody, then combines the latter's circular movement with thumping eighth chords played with the left hand. After repeating the start of the piece with its questioning language, the cycle finishes on two loud chords that say very: Now it's over!

Franz Vorraber in November 2007

The Night Wind
by Fjodor Iwanowitsch Tjuttschew (1803-1873)

What are you wailing about, night wind, what are you bemoaning with such fury?
What does your strange voice mean, now indistinct and plaintive, now loud?
In a language intelligible to the heart you speak of torment past understanding,
and you moan and at times stir up frenzied sounds in the heart!

Oh, do not sing those fearful songs about primeval native Chaos!
How avidly the world of the soul at night listens to its favourite story!
It strains to burst out of the mortal breast and longs to merge with the Infinite...
Oh, do not wake the sleeping tempests; beneath them Chaos stirs!

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he Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, was completed on 9 March 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous D minor concerto, K. 466.
The concerto has three movements:
I. Allegro maestoso - In common time. The tempo marking is in Mozart's catalog of his own works, but not in the autograph manuscript.
II. Andante in F major - In both the autograph score and in his personal catalog, Mozart notated the meter as alla breve.
III. Allegro vivace assai
The opening movement begins quietly with a march figure, but quickly moves to a more lyrical melody interspersed with a fanfare in the winds. The music grows abruptly in volume, with the violins taking up the principal melody over the march theme, which is now played by the brass. This uplifting theme transitions to a brief, quieter interlude distinguished by a sighing motif in the brass. The march returns, eventually transitioning to the entrance of the soloist. The soloist plays a brief Eingang (a type of abbreviated cadenza) before resolving to a trill on the dominant G while the strings play the march in C major. The piano then introduces new material in C major and begins transitioning to the dominant key of G major. Immediately after an orchestral cadence finally announces the arrival of the dominant, the music abruptly shifts to G minor in a passage that is reminiscent of the main theme of the Symphony No. 40 in that key. A series of rising and falling chromatic scales then transition the music to the true second theme of the piece, an ebullient G major theme, which can also be heard in Mozart's Third Horn Concerto. The usual development and recapitulation follow. There is a cadenza at the end of the movement, although Mozart's original has been lost.
The famous Andante, in the subdominant key of F major, is in three parts. The opening section is for orchestra only and features muted strings. The first violins play with a dreamlike melody over an accompaniment consisting of second violins and violas playing repeated-note triplets and the cellos and bass playing pizzicato arpeggios. All of the main melodic material of the movement is contained in this orchestral introduction, in either F major or F minor. The second section introduces the solo piano and starts off in F major. It is not a literal repeat, though, as after the first few phrases, new material is interjected which ventures off into different keys. When familiar material returns, the music is now in the dominant keys of C minor and C major. Then it modulates to G minor, then B-flat major, then F minor, which transitions to the third section of the movement. The third section begins with the dreamlike melody again, but this time in the relative key of F major's parallel key, A-flat major. Over the course of this final section, the music makes its way back to the tonic keys of F minor and then F major and a short coda concludes the movement.
The final rondo movement begins with the full orchestra espousing a joyous "jumping" theme. After a short cadenza, the piano joins in and further elaborates. A "call and response" style is apparent, with the piano and ensemble exchanging parts fluidly. The soloist gets scale and arpeggio figurations that enhance the themes, as well as a short cadenza that leads right back to the main theme. The main theme appears one final time, leading to an upward rush of scales that ends on a triumphant note.
Cultural references:
The opening of the second movement in Mozart's handwriting.
The second movement was featured in the 1967 Swedish film "Elvira Madigan". As a result, the piece has become widely known as the "Elvira Madigan concerto".
Neil Diamond's 1972 song "Song Sung Blue" was based on a theme from the andante movement of the concerto.
An excerpt from the second movement was also featured in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, as Atlantis rises from the sea.
An electronic arrangement of the concerto's first movement was used as the main theme of the TV series Whiz Kids.
The second movement is also used in "Annie's Love Song" and "Music Monsters" from the children's program, Little Einsteins. The Second Movement was also used in the episode "Sleepy Time" of the children's show SpongeBob SquarePants while the titular character explores his pet snail Gary's dream.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyklopedia

"Through evening's shade, the pale moon gleams - While rapt in love's ecstatic dreams - Two hearts are fondly beating", quoted Johannes Brahms above the notes for the "Andante" in the Piano Sonata No.3. This excerpt of a poem by C.O. Sternau (a pseudonym of Otto Inkermann) characterizes the mood of this piece, which had a large contribution to the fame of the young composer. Written in 1853 this "poetic" sonata marks the end of a cycle of three sonatas. Likewise it was the last tune the 20-year-old composer submitted to Robert Schumann for commentary. Robert Schumann himself described Brahms in an article titled "Neue Bahnen" (New Paths) in October 1853 as "a man with a calling" who was "destined to give ideal expression to the times". Accordingly Magdalena Müllerperth has prepended of the Brahms-Sonata, which filled the second part of her recital in the lay refectory of Maulbronn monastery on June 4th 2011, a creation of significance for the compositions of the romantic era: the cycle "Fantasy Pieces" for Piano Opus 12 by Robert Schumann. Inspired by a collection of novellas by E.T.A. Hoffmann, called "Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier", it seems that Schumann had the characters "Florestan" and "Eusebius" in mind - two characters he created for representing the duality of his personality: Eusebius depicts the dreamer and Florestan represents Schumann's passionate side. The virtual dialogue between both characters during the movements ends in the piece "End of the Song", which Schumann has described in a letter to his wife Clara: "Well in the end it all resolves itself into a wedding...". Before these literary-inspired compositions full of poetic pictures and dream scenes by Schumann and Brahms, Magdalena Müllerperth introduced the concert with five dances by one of her personally favourite composers Frédéric Chopin, in continuation to her first published recital which included Chopin's "Impromptus No.I-III" and the "Fantaisie-Impromptu" Op.66 (released as a part of the CD "Comme un jeux d'eau", No.: KuK 16). Chopin's "Mazurkas" - he wrote at least 69 Mazurkas - are based on a traditional Polish folk dance in triple meter with an accent on the third or on the second beat, called "Mazurek". Chopin started composing his mazurkas in 1825, and continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death.
With "Dreamscenes" you listen to Magdalena Müllerperth's second piano recital, which is documented on disc.

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he Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 332/300k, was written at the same time as the Piano Sonata, K. 330, and Piano Sonata, K. 331 ("Alla turca"), Mozart numbering them as a set from one to three. They were once believed to have been written in the late 1770s in Paris, but it is now thought more likely that they date from 1783, by which time Mozart had moved to Vienna. Some believe that Mozart wrote this and the other sonatas during a summer 1783 visit to Salzburg made for the purpose of introducing his wife, Constanze to his father, Leopold. All three sonatas were published in Vienna in 1784... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

The Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor D. 845 (Op. 42) by Franz Schubert is a sonata for solo piano, composed in May 1825. The first movement was featured in the 2016 film "The Age of Shadows". The first movement is in sonata form though with ambiguity over the material in the development and the beginning of the recapitulation. The second movement is in C major (relative key to A minor) variation form, with somewhat frequent forays into the parallel minor, C minor. The third movement is a scherzo in compound ternary form, where the main scherzo is essentially in sonata form. The main scherzo opens in A minor and soon switches to the second theme in C major without a transition. The development goes through F minor, A-flat major and A-flat minor, finally arriving on an imperfect cadence in A minor. After the development comes the opening theme in A minor, soon followed by the second theme in A major (also in which the main scherzo ends). The calmer and slower trio section is in F major, the submediant major to A minor (also the subdominant of the relative key to A minor). No extra coda is present after the recapitulated main scherzo. The fourth movement, in A minor, begins with a melancholic but light melody. This movement is in sonata rondo form with foreshortened recapitulation. The secondary subject in the exposition goes from E minor to E major, while that in the recapitulation goes from A minor to A major. This movement finally closes in A minor... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Carnaval, Op. 9, is a work by Robert Schumann for piano solo, written in 1834-1835, and subtitled "Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes" (Little Scenes on Four Notes). It consists of 21 short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent. Schumann gives musical expression to himself, his friends and colleagues, and characters from improvised Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte). He dedicated the work to the violinist Karol Lipinski. Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a "Sehnsuchtswalzer" by Franz Schubert, whose music Schumann had only discovered in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra by Schumann's close friend Ludwig Schuncke, a set of variations on the same Schubert theme. Schumann felt that Schuncke's heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his variations in a more intimate way, and worked on them in 1833 and 1834. The work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but Schumann did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. Pianist Andreas Boyde has since reconstructed the original set of variations from Schumann's manuscript (published by Hofmeister Musikverlag), premiered this reconstruction in New York and recorded it for Athene Records... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

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he Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, was completed on 9 March 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous D minor concerto, K. 466. The second movement was featured in the 1967 Swedish film "Elvira Madigan". As a result, the piece has become widely known as the "Elvira Madigan concerto". Neil Diamond's 1972 song "Song Sung Blue" was based on a theme from the andante movement of the concerto. [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

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he Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major, K. 537, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and completed on 24 February 1788. It is generally known as the "Coronation" concerto. The traditional name associated with this work is not Mozart's own, nor was the work written on the occasion for which posterity has named it. Mozart remarked in a letter to his wife in April 1789 that he had just performed this concerto at court. But the nickname "Coronation" is derived from his playing of the work at the time of the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in October 1790 in Frankfurt am Main. At the same concert, Mozart also played the Piano Concerto No. 19, K. 459. We know this because when Johann André of Offenbach published the first editions of both concertos in 1794, he identified them on their title pages as being performed on the occasion of Leopold's coronation. Alan Tyson in his introduction to Dover Publications' facsimile of the autograph score (which today is at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York) comments that "Although K. 459 has at times been called a 'Coronation' concerto, this title has nearly always been applied to K. 537". [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

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fter releasing the concertos for piano and orchestra in G major KV 453 and A major KV 488 (CD-No: KuK 77) and the piano concertos in C major KV 467 and D major KV 537 (CD-No: KuK 86), we now present a live recording of two more piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed during his period as a freelance artist in Vienna. Freed from the chains of the archbishop, the most definitive instrumental works originated during this period from 1782 up to his death in 1791.
Mozart composed the concerto in D major KV 451 in the early part of 1784. The premiere occurred at the Burgtheater Vienna on 1st April, 1784. Among other things, the work is characterized by a comparatively large orchestra, especially in the first movement - certainly the largest he ever used in a solo concerto. Mozart dated his piano concerto in D minor KV 466, 10th February, 1785. His father, Leopold, who was staying in Vienna at the time, reported after the premiere: "The concerto was incomparable... the orchestration splendid". The concerto KV 466 quickly advanced to being one of Mozart's most played concertos; the young Beethoven performed and wrote cadences for it, as did Clara Schumann.
Here we have a recording by the pianist, Cristina Marton. A young and sensitive artist, born in 1974 in Temeswar in Romania, she has been decorated with numerous honours in international competitions, such as the Clara Schumann Competition, Düsseldorf; the Mozart Competition, Salzburg; and the Martha Argerich Competition, Buenos Aires. During her career, she has enthusiastically worked with such artists as András Schiff, Radu Lupu and Alfred Brendel.

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he varied repertoire of the Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, documented by more than 500 recorded works, and numerous international tours with such important soloists as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maurice André, Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Alfred Brendel, Hilary Hahn and Thomas Quasthoff, bear witness to the high standing of this ensemble and underlines its role as an ambassador for the cultural life of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Furthering the development of young performers is also an essential component of its artistic work.
Ruben Gazarian, the successor to the orchestra‘s founder, Jörg Faerber, can look back on a successful career as a violinist, concert-master and conductor with numerous orchestras and chamber orchestras in Eastern Europe and Germany. Directly before starting his work in Heilbronn, he received, in Frankfurt, the international "Sir George Solti" conductor prize.

The Vienna piano concertos between 1782 and 1786 are seen as the most eminent instrumental compositions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart´s life work. He created a new musical form through the use of comprehensive musical ideas in reference of the themes, the originality and the equality of the interaction between soloist and orchestra. That is an extraordinary achievement of Mozart particularly in this part of his life - maybe as a result of his failed opera plans before - in view of the many concerts he played as one of the most asked pianists of Vienna and the multitude of students he taught during this period. It is documented, for example, that Mozart performed in the genesis year of the g major concerto (1784) at least 23 concerts during a period of 46 days. He also composed 6 piano-concertos and taught a stately quantity of students during the same year... Therefore these two works are carried by love of life cause of this outer success - profound but life-affirmatively, sometimes melancholic, yes even tragic, however by no means resigning.

Exactly these disputes with the intellectual density and psychological dimension of Mozart´s works make Christoph Soldan´s interpretations uniquely. Soldan studied with Prof. Eliza Hansen as well as Christoph Eschenbach at the Hamburg music university and attained his international success through a concert tour with Leonard Bernstein in the summer 1989. Since than he performs concerts as soloist of various renowned orchestras in Europe, the USA, Mexico and Japan. In addition to technical perfection, it is his concentration on the depth of the interpretation and the atmospheric transparency, which makes Soldan´s concerts very valuable.

Christoph Soldan combines a long-standing cooperation with the Polish conductor Pawel Przytocki. Przytocki works since 1999 as a constant guest conductor of the radio symphony orchestra Krakau and perfomed with the Budapest Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica de Xalapa in Mexico, the Real Philharmonia de Galicia in Spain and the Cappella Istropolitana.

The Capella Istropolitana with his transparent string sound in accordance with the historical performance practice is virtually predestined for these concerti. This orchestra is seen as one of the most prestigious ensembles for historical music and look back to more than 70 cd-productions - two these releases were honored with platinum.

A concert-recording from September 14th, 2001 at the Maulbronn monastery church by A.O. Grimminger and J.S. Kindler in cooperation with Jürgen Budday.

"Roses, carnations, quills and a piece of sealing wax ...
and am not even at home just now,
but somewhere else as usual,
quite different and strange ...
those 'espaces imaginaires' "
Frédéric Chopin, Nohant 1845

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ndrei Gavrilov is one of the most prestigious piano soloists of the contemporary concert stage. Audience response to his performances is remarkable, the reviews ecstatic – and such has been the case since 1974, when, as an 18-year-old, he jumped in at the last minute for Svjatoslav Richter, who had been taken ill. His career since then can only be described as exemplary, with appearances at large festivals, performances with famous directors and many accredited prizes and awards as its high points. In recognition of his contribution to society, he was honoured in 1995 by the Board of International Research of American Biographical Institute (ABI) and received their Man of the Year commemorative medal in addition to the Gold Record of Achievement and World Lifetime Achievement awards. In 1998, the Philips Music Group included Andrei Gavrilov in their exquisite Great Pianists of the 20th Century collection.
The paths that led Andrei Gavrilov to Frédéric Chopin are as easy to trace as those that led him to Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Goldberg Variations are among Gavrilov's most favourite piano interpretations. That Beethoven, Mozart and, above all, Bach were, in turn, all role models for Frédéric Chopin is common knowledge. Subtlety of expression, a lyrical rendering, highly nuanced dynamics and the internalized tempo rubato are all characteristic of Gavrilov's piano. The harmonic and tonal reminiscences in Chopin — the legacy of Slavic folk music — make for yet another moment of animated interpretation. At the same time, the clarity of expression and intensity of feeling join forces and become mutually inspiring.
Gavrilov's performance begins with Chopin's later work, the Piano Sonata No. 2 avec un marche funèbre in B flat minor, Op. 35. Chopin patron Robert Schumann once remarked that this particular piece was more of a mood than a sonata because it bound most of Chopin's “unruly children' together: an animated rhythmic theme at the start, moving into a demonic scherzo that is followed by the celebrated Marche Funèbre (which the composer had published earlier) and then a mysterious Finale Presto. Yet, despite all the contradictions evident in composition and interpretation alike — from passionate and demonic to melancholic or to an elegant and formal restraint — the overall structure of this piano sonata is logical in its elements of melody, harmony and theme, while its interpretation by Gavrilov is simply intoxicating. An early ballad in G minor, Op. 23. from 1831, Chopin's first, is followed by his last, Op. 52 in F minor and written in 1843, six years before the composer's death. This has a concentrated lyricism that is typically Slavic. Originally dedicated to Baroness Rothschild and based on the tale of The Three Budry Brothers, it constituted a new music genre at the time and was introduced to instrumental music by Chopin himself. The piece draws its charm from arabesque ornamentations and certain variations and developments of these. Contrapuntal aspects, a predilection for blurred intermediate tones and the mysterious themes sit well with the brilliant clarity of Gavrilov's piano.
This is an impressive performance from a great virtuoso of the piano, held in the Lay Refectory of the medieval Maulbronn Monastery. It is followed by five of Chopin's concert etudes, “classical forms' that concentrate particularly on the technical aspects of compositions for the piano; in this particular rendering, virtuosity and expression complement each other superbly. The latter two qualities are instantly recognizable as hallmarks of Andrei Gavrilov's art and they round off this virtuoso performance. At the same time, this particular recording is impressive because artist, audience and sound engineer are, so to speak, all in the same boat: the tangible concentration on playing the instrument, the breathlessness of those listening and the precision of the recording technique all merge into a dynamic filigree of sound.

Dr. Ulfert Goeman
Frankfurt am Main, June 2000

Tracklist

Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor Opus 35:
01. I.: Grave - Doppio Movimento (6:21)
02. II.: Scherzo (5:53)
03. III.: Marche Funebre (8:02)
04. IV.: Finale Presto (1:32)
05. Ballade No.1 in G minor Opus 23
06. Ballade No. 4 in F minor Opus 52
07. Etude No. 5 in G-flat major Opus 10
08. Etude No. 9 in F minor Opus 10
09. Etude No. 12 in C minor Opus 10
10. Etude No. 4 in C-sharp minor Opus 10
11. Etude No. 3 in E major Opus 10

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n 1827, a year before his death, Franz Schubert wrote the Impromptus at the age of thirty. He grouped these eight pieces into two cycles with four impromptus in each, perhaps so they could be played individually or as a whole cycle.
The first Impromptu in C minor is an unusual piece. Beginning with on a long, drawn-out note, Schubert develops a unison melody that flows up and down in a triplet movement and which he then imbeds in a four-part chorale. The rhythm in this dark key of C minor is that of a march, probably a funeral march, and lends a tense atmosphere, something inescapable, to the whole. Block-like and with no transition, the unison passages are rather like a woodwind chorale and play side by side. The changes of key are abrupt and sudden. As if it were a memory, the motif reappears later in A flat major, the key of dreams and longing. During the entire piece, the contrasts are heightened and varied until the startling change to C major, which is totally unstable and glides again and again into C minor. Seldom do you find a composition where C major and C minor are so close to each other in such a small space. The first Impromptu ends in major, without losing this surreal mood.
In contrast to the march rhythm of the first Impromptu, the underlying rhythm of the second, written in E flat major, is in triple meter, with the second beat always stressed, just like the chime of a bell in answer to the heavy first stroke. Combined with the cascading runs played with the right hand and that start on a triple, the motif common to all four impromptus, this rhythm lends the E flat major impromptu its characteristic sound. In the middle section, Schubert heightens the bell chimes with double sforzati, which let the finally piece end in falling E flat minor runs during the closing measures.
The third Impromptu uses the Schubert "wanderer rhythm", combined with a continuous triplet movement in the melody, which is characterized this time by the falling triple. Even at this slow tempo, Schubert keeps this relentless pattern of movement going right to the end. Again, melodic phrases in the secondary voices, mainly from falling triplets - from G flat to E flat at the beginning, for example - give rise to changes in harmony that introduce a "dreamlike uncertainty" to the piece.
The cycle concludes with the Impromptu in A flat major, where the harmony at the start is rather like an unanswered question. It begins with an A flat minor chord break, leading into the dominant tune after an E flat major as a standing chord, which, without resolution, then flows into a pause. This is followed by a motif with a downward triplet movement, which can scarcely be seen as an answer to the question posed at the start. Schubert's rhythm here is similar to that of the second Impromptu, with stressed long notes on the second beat. Schubert uses these methods consistently to develop the character of the music and thus create perfect masterpieces. In the middle section in C sharp minor, he picks up the long second beat and puts it into the melody, then combines the latter's circular movement with thumping eighth chords played with the left hand. After repeating the start of the piece with its questioning language, the cycle finishes on two loud chords that say very: Now it's over!
The "Wanderer Fantasie", as it is known, was written almost five years earlier, between 1822 and 1823. The words of a line from the Schubertlied, "Der Wanderer", set the theme for the second movement, which, in turn, forms the central sequence of variations that make up the piece. This is a daring, orchestral-like work that is unique even in our times. It consists of four movements built around one rhythmic motif, with each movement flowing into the next without a break, thus turning the four into one whole entity. Although the title of "Wanderer Fantasie" was not Schubert's, the reference to the lied "Der Wanderer" is obvious because of the central theme of the piece. The dominant rhythm pattern also appears in other works by Schubert. Wandering ceaselessly, without ever stopping - this continuous flow ad infinitum pulls everything along with it. It is the wandering of our lives, the relentless flow of time - time, which, as a symbol in the arts, is perhaps best represented by music. This wandering may well be interrupted by dreams, as in the 2nd movement, but it remains an ungovernable force that cannot be escaped. At the end of the third movement, Schubert composed a tremendous crescendo of sound that was probably too much for the instruments of that time to cope with and which merges into a fugued fourth movement in octaves, where sound unfolds in all possible registers. The notes are distributed up and down the entire keyboard, and there are chord tremoli and octave runs galore, all of culminate in an untamed flood of sound in C major.

Franz Vorraber in November 2007

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steemed friends of audiophile music, the concert grand piano is incontestably the king of instruments. I could now wax lyrical about its incomparable dynamics and go into its ability to go from the tenderest of sounds in a soft minor key to the magnificent power of a fortissimo, or I could rhapsodise about its impressive size and elegance. But what makes this instrument really fascinating is its individuality, since each one is unique in itself - created by a master. A concert grand has a life all of its own that a virtuoso can really "get into" and hence bring the work of the composer to life. In our Grand Piano Masters series, we get into the character and soul of the concert grand piano and experience, during the performance itself, the dialogue between the instrument, the virtuoso and the performance space.
Appassionata - appassionato (passionate, impassioned) - passione (passion), to have a passion for something, to be a passionate artist, going to the limits of suffering for the sake of it, not because of the benefits. I might perhaps also mention the word 'calling' here, the passion that is the prerequisite of mastery. For, esteemed friends, which of us today still feels himself called to do something and is prepared to live for that calling? To wander up to the heights and down into the deep valleys, to accept setbacks, other people's lack of understanding, personal sacrifices and much, much more?
The young virtuoso in his prime and with all his charm must first be polished year after year in order to become a glittering diamond - a true master. For what distinguishes a master is the passion, the fervour and, above all, the experience. I like youthful "Sturm and Drang", as you no doubt also do - it comes at us like a breath of fresh air, irrepressible and powerful. Yet when that first fame evaporates, when you've played the big houses and the euphoria of the moment inevitably ends up back in the same old rooms? What then?
Then you need love, unconditional passion and a deeply felt calling to make it to true masterdom. This particular recording is of a concert by a true past master who has "been there and done that" and who is now conveying and passing on her experiences and artistic merit to the up-and-coming generation. Lilya, with all her humaneness and virtuosity of performance, has crossed the boundary into that space where pride is refined into modesty, with the result that what is being played is measured against how it is conveyed to the person instead of against the preordained perfection of the music aristocracy.
Melancholy for the transience of the moment is etched in her features when she has given the audience her all. At the "Bad Homburg Bechstein Concerts in the Castle", we had the opportunity to witness her interpretation of two impassioned composers - Beethoven, who carried the "Appassionata" inside him, and Brahms, who until his death held fast to his unrequited "Passione" for Clara Schumann, the love of his life...

Josef-Stefan Kindler