Schubert: Der Wanderer

Prominent in the German Romantic imagination, the figure of the wanderer was also taken up by Franz Schubert. He composed a lied of that name, the theme of which was later to be found in his virtuosic Fantasy in C major, later aptly dubbed the ‘Wanderer-Fantasie’.

A tireless wanderer himself, Franz Liszt transcribed Schubert’s lied for piano and presented several versions of the Fantasy in C, including one for piano and orchestra and another for two pianos.

Here, Sylviane Deferne presents the rarest of Liszt’s transcriptions of the ‘Wanderer-Fantasie’, the one for solo piano, with the last movement completely rewritten by the composer.

Two works by Schubert complete the programme: the 4 Impromptus op. 142, written a year before his death, and a rarely recorded early work, the Variations on a theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner.

• Liszt: Der Wanderer (No. 11 from Zwölf Lieder von Franz Schubert, S558)
• Liszt: Wandererfantasie
• Schubert: 13 Variations on a theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner in A minor, D576
• Schubert: 4 Impromptus, D935
• Schubert: Impromptu in A flat major, D935 No. 2
• Schubert: Impromptu in B flat major, D935 No. 3
• Schubert: Impromptu in F Minor, D935 No. 1
• Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D935, No. 4