Wanderer Fantasy

Pianist Lukas Geniusas devotes himself to a form that is a symbol of freedom and was particularly beloved by Romantic composers. In his song "Der Wanderer," Schubert sets to music the figure of the wandering vagabond, which a few years later led to a large-scale instrumental work: the Fantasia in C major D 760 (1822), later known as the "Wanderer Fantasy". The four-part structure could correspond to that of a sonata cycle of four movements, but these sections follow one another without interruption in a continuous process, like an unbroken journey. Fascinated by this work, Liszt made his arrangement for piano and orchestra in 1851, two years before his famous Sonata in B minor, which is also monothematic and unfolds as a single, broad movement. Tchaikovsky, on the other hand, more rooted in the classical tradition, cultivates virtuosity and instrumental splendour in his Concert Fantasy from 1884. Together with the Symphony Orchestra of St. Gallen under the direction of Modestas Pitrenas, Geniusas presents a rare (if not unique) combination of these two fantasies, which were composed more than six decades apart.