Fantasia in D minor K.397

Description

A fantasia thought to date from around 1782, one of the freest in form among Mozart's solo works. The autograph survives without its ending, and the final ten bars usually played were supplied by a later hand — whose is not settled, though August Eberhard Müller is the name most often proposed.

In D minor, it opens with low broken chords rising and falling quietly, after which a grieving slow section sings. Twice, improvisatory fast runs cut across and break the flow. At the end the music turns to D major and closes with a bright idea that releases everything that came before.

Its intermediate rating reflects demands that fall unevenly: the runs are hard but short, and most of the piece moves at a settled tempo. The real task is switching character from scene to scene — how slowly the opening can be laid down, how freely the runs are treated. Whether it sounds improvised is what the piece is judged on.

Piano works with a free, improvisatory character, ranging from Bach to Chopin and Beethoven, each shaped by imaginative, fantasy-like ideas.