Piano Sonata (Draeseke)

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The Sonata quasi fantasia op. 6 is the most extensive piano work by Felix Draeseke . Together with the sonatas by Franz Liszt and Julius Reubke, which are in some respects comparable, it is considered to be the most important piano sonata by a composer of the New German School .

History of origin

Felix Draeseke (around 1870)

A first version of the composition was created in 1862 and was designed in one movement based on Liszt's sonata . In the following years, however, Draeseke reworked it, from which the work emerged in three movements: the original system was split up by adding an interlude and divided into two equally weighted outer movements.

The first edition of the sonata was published in 1869 and is dedicated to the pianist Hans von Bülow , a close friend of Draeseke's who, however, never played it. However, the work was regularly performed by Franz Liszt , who even considered it to be on par with Ludwig van Beethoven's sonatas .

The sentences

The final sequence of movements in Draeseke's piano sonata is:

  • Introduzione e Marcia funebre
  • Intermezzo (Valse-Scherzo)
  • final

The playing time is approx. 27 minutes.

The first movement begins with a distinctive, tonally not clearly bound Allegro-con-brio motif, which ends twice in slow rubato passages that finally lead to the actual main part, the funeral march ( C sharp minor , Largo grave ). This is made up of three parts. A contrasting Un poco animato appears in the middle section . The funeral march is shortened and varied repeatedly and ends calmly after a large increase.

The short second movement ( D flat major , Presto ) is a brilliant, three-part scherzo in the style of a concert waltz.

The finale ( Allegro con brio ) begins with the same motif that introduced the first movement. Here, however, the key does not turn to C sharp minor, but to its parallel in E major . A final movement based on the main sonata form develops, with a predominantly heroic character, which culminates in a coda that increases to a threefold forte at the end.

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