Mendelssohn: Fantasia in F-Sharp minor

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was an illustrious composer, pianist, organist, violinist, conductor, teacher, and benevolent patron of musicians. He is the one who brought J. S. Bach back from oblivion. His contributions to the musical world were so profound that Robert Schumann hailed him as “the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them.”

The final manuscript of Fantasia in f-sharp minor, Op. 28, “Sonate écossaise” (Scottish Sonata) was completed in 1833, The conception of the work was actually prior to his 1829 visit to Scotland, as seen from the letters to his sister about a “Sonate ecossaise” in 1828. When the piece was published in 1834, Mendelssohn replaced its original title with “Phantasie.” Consisting of three movements, the Fantasia belongs in the category of the fantasy-sonata. Like Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, each movement is in a faster tempo than the preceding one. Fantasia’s elegantly simple and expressive themes are harmonically and rhythmically transformed in each movement, creating diverse textures and moods.
The first movement, Con moto agitato, begins with sweeping arpeggios of foreboding introduction, followed by a melancholy Andante. Intensely dramatic chords and octaves in different tonalities add improvisatory character to the middle section. The recapitulation echoes the main theme, now with passionate anguish, above broken octaves of a rising chromatic scale. This intensity subsides into the melancholy spirit of the opening. A part of the agitated middle section briefly returns, and the single voice of the main melody over mysterious bass octaves closes the 1st movement.
The second movement, Allegro con moto, is a charming dance-like scherzo in A major, with an inventive thematic transformation. The Presto finale is fiery and virtuosic moto perpetuo in the sonata form. The thrilling coda concludes the piece with feverish ardor.