One of Mozart’s most celebrated piano pieces, the Fantasia in D minor, K. 397, was composed in 1782 or between 1786 and 1787 and it was left unfinished. (For this reason, the catalog lists it as a fragment).
It remains unclear whether the composer had planned to expand or imagine the work as anteceding a sonata or even a fugue. Yet, it is one of Mozart’s most popular piano pieces.
The emotional concentration encapsulated in pieces written by Mozart in minor keys is unique, and Mozart’s choice of the D minor key for this Fantasy is meaningful.
The Adagio evokes the theatricality of an operatic scene with many changes of pulse and mood, [and] its startling silences and passionate outcries. Chromaticism plays a prominent role in the thematic material throughout the Adagio, coloring the melodic lines and the descending bass figures in the left hand.
However, Mozart resolves the tension in an arpeggiated major chord, signifying ‘transcendence’ over the weighty thematic material.
Here is Emil Gilels to play this music for you:
