Wanderer Fantasy
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The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 (D. 760), popularly known as the "Wanderer" Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in November 1822. Its structural design follows the classical sonata form.
The whole work is based on one single basic motif, from which all themes are developed. This motif is distilled from the theme of the second movement. This second movement (set in C sharp minor) is a sequence of variations on a melody taken from the lied Der Wanderer, which Schubert himself wrote in 1816. It is this set of variations from which the work's popular name is derived.
All four movements follow each other without a break. After the first movement Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo in C major and the second movement Adagio, follow a scherzo presto in A flat major and the finale, which returns to the key of C major. This finale starts out as a fugue but later breaks into a virtuoso piece.
The Wanderer Fantasy is considered Schubert's most technically demanding composition for the piano. Schubert himself is reputed to have said "the devil may play it", in reference to his own inability to do so properly. Franz Liszt would later rework the fantasy into a piano concerto.
