Schubert / Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy - Tchaikovsky: Concert Fantasy
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FRANZ SCHUBERT / PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Schubert / Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy - Tchaikovsky: Concert Fantasy
Lukas Geniušas (piano), Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Modestas Pitr?nas
[ Alpha Classics / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 19 June 2026
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Pianist Lukas Geniušas pays tribute to the fantasy, a form synonymous with freedom, dear to the Romantics.
Schubert sets the figure of the wanderer to music in his Lied Der Wanderer, which, a few years later, would give rise to a large-scale instrumental work: the Fantasy in C major, D. 760 (1822), later known as the "Wanderer" Fantasy. Its four-part structure could be that of a four-movement sonata cycle, but these sections follow one another without interruption in a continuous process, like an uninterrupted journey.
Fascinated by this work, Liszt wrote his transcription for piano and orchestra in 1851, two years before his famous Sonata in B minor, which is also monothematic and unfolds as a single, vast movement.
More in line with the classicists, Tchaikovsky cultivates virtuosity and instrumental brilliance in his Concert Fantasy of 1884. With the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas, Geniušas offers a rare (if not unprecedented) pairing of these two fantasies, separated by just over six decades.
"A thrilling album, with pianist, orchestra, repertoire and sound ideally matched."
"I didn't understand much of the booklet accompanying this superb release but towards the end, having abandoned metaphysical speculation, it reads 'the two fantasies, separated by little more than six decades, reveal strikingly different interpretations of the genre. In Schubert-Liszt, continuous development … dissolves sectional boundaries and transforms fantasy into a Romantic pilgrimage. In Tchaikovsky, by contrast, fantasy becomes a display of musical ideas, a virtuoso exhibition of compositional invention.'
It is an attempt to highlight the essential differences between these two life‑enhancing works - the first time, as far as I know, that they have been paired together on the same release (for the Concert Fantasy it makes an imaginative change from the standard all-Tchaikovsky coupling). We should hear both of them far more frequently in the concert hall, especially when played and recorded like this." Gramophone Editor's Choice
Tracks:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Concert Fantasy, Op. 56: I. Quasi Rondo
Concert Fantasy, Op. 56: II. Contrastes
Franz Liszt:
Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, S. 366: I. Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo
Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, S. 366: II. Adagio
Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, S. 366: III. Presto
Schubert's Fantasie in C Major, S. 366: IV. Allegro
