Mannes: Piano Fantasies

Yesterday evening, Mannes students continued their exploration of the piano repertoire with a performance of four fantasies, three of them from the Romantic period and one a twentieth century work.

The program opened with Felix Mendelssohn's Fantasie in F sharp minor, Sonate ecossaise, Op. 28 (1833) performed by Ariela Bohrod, a first year undergraduate student making her performance debut at Mannes.  Like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, the piece was in three movements, each faster than the preceding.  As an article by John Palmer notes:

"The F sharp minor Fantasia is generally considered one of the best examples of Mendelssohn's virtuoso works for the piano. It has all the marks of the composer's later "Scottish" works, including chords with open fifths, open harmonies, pedaling that creates a fuzzy effect, and powerful, dissonant crescendos."

The second piece was the Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49 (1841) by Frederic Chopin and was performed by Gvantsa Zangaladze, a first year graduate student who was also making her performance debut at Mannes.  In contrast to the Mendelssohn, this was a much moodier work that began with a slowness almost funereal in character.

The final piece in the first half of the program was entitled Etude Fantasy (1976) and was written by John Corigliano, the New York City composer most famous for his opera, The Ghosts of Versailles.  The work consists of five movements: For the Left Hand Alone, Legato, Fifths to Thirds, Ornaments and Melody.  It was obviously an extremely difficult piece for any pianist, but Daniel Feng played it brilliantly.

The second half consisted of a single work, the great Fantasy in C, Op. 17 (1836) by Robert Schumann.  This is one of the most famous works in the piano repertoire and Schumann's masterpiece for solo piano as well as a heartfelt profession of love for Clara Schumann.  It was dedicated to Franz Liszt who, the Wikipedia article notes, was "one of the few pianists capable of meeting the then-unparalleled demands of the Fantasie, particularly the second movement coda's rapid skips in opposite directions simultaneously."  Yesterday evening, Yekwon Sunwoo gave a performance that did full justice to the work.