Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano, Op. 73

His miraculous song year (1840) was long behind him. And the great chamber works of 1842, such as the string quartets and the piano quartet and quintet, were so successful as to leave him slightly mute in that genre. But in a burst of inspiration, Robert Schumann composed the Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano in just three days in February 1849. Significantly, the published version allows substitution of either violin or cello for the clarinet, probably in an attempt to widen their marketability. The Fantasiestücke were highly regarded and popular from the beginning, even being adapted for mass consumption as a piano four-hand version in 1851.
The “fantasy” element comes through in both large-scale form and thematic character, which thrives on impulsive changes of mood. Schumann threads the three pieces around A minor/A major, and the whole gives some impression of a unified song cycle without words. Unlike a conventional sonata, the three individual pieces flow directly from one to the next and generally eschew the familiar fast-slow-fast design. Indeed, Schumann chooses affective headings in German for the movements (such as “Zart und mit Ausdruck,” “soft and with expression”) rather than the traditional Italian tempo indications. And while one can follow a sonata-like arc through tonic and dominant keys, as in the opening piece, Schumann understates the reprise of the opening material. The melodic line is broad and oriented around a few expressive highpoints, while the piano accompaniment is ebullient and rich. The later movements, particularly the third, favor short repetitive phrases that are to be played faster and faster as the end approaches.
Schumann’s personal genius, which I describe as a lyric intensity offset by touches of almost adolescent frivolity, is very much on display. And although his larger compositions are often mistakenly criticized for their formal shortcomings, Schumann certainly does best when he can be concise, mercurial, even aphoristic. It is perhaps not coincidental, therefore, that these delightful Fantasy Pieces were written immediately after his failure with the largest musical structure of all: opera.

(c) Jason Stell