Wanderer Fantasy - Historical Background

Historical Background

Schubert composed this work in late 1822 just after breaking off work on the Unfinished Symphony after sketching its incomplete scherzo. It was written for, and dedicated to Carl Emanuel Liebenberg von Zsittin, who had studied piano with Johann Nepomuk Hummel in the hope of some remuneration from the dedication. It is not only a technically formidable challenge for the performer but a structurally formidable four-movement work combining variation with sonata form. Each movement transitions into the next instead of ending with a final definitive cadence, and each starts with a variation of the opening phrase of his Lied "Der Wanderer." The slow second movement states the theme virtually as presented in the song, whereas the other fast movements begin with variants in diminution, the first movement a monothematic sonata form in which the second theme is another variant, the third a scherzo in compound time, the finale starting in fugato and making increasing demands on the player's technical and interpretive powers as it storms on to its climactic conclusion.