Schubert "Wanderer" Fantasy - Henrik Kilhamn Edition

PDF Score with marks and fingerings by Henrik Kilhamn.
Schubert: "Wanderer" Fantasy in C major, Op. 15, D.760

I have marked all my own pianistic solutions in the score after working with this repertoire for a long time.

• Fingerings
• Note redistributions
• Hands Over/Under coordination
• Some simplification suggestions
• Pedal markings only occasionally
• Preface with explanations included

This edition should NOT be confused with Simple Solutions Edition - Easy Arrangements for the Intermediate Pianist, which is entirely based on simplifying original compositions.

The Henrik Kilhamn Edition comprises only added marks and fingerings on an original composition. A few minor simplification suggestions does not make this difficult composition suitable for intermediate pianists at all. They only serve as tactics for advanced pianists to be able to better retain musical accuracy, flow (tempo), clarity and/or sound balance when the compositional demands feel too high, but from an already high level of technical proficiency.

Schubert: "Wanderer" Fantasy in C major, Op. 15, D.760

I. Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Presto
IV. Allegro

Underlying edition (in public domain): Breitkopf & Härtel, 1888, editor: Julius Epstein

Note on the Composition

This is a notoriously difficult piano composition. Apparently the technical demands was too much for the composer himself, who shouted “May the devil play this stuff!” when he failed to play through the last movement when performing the piece at a private music soiree with friends.

Rather typical for Schubert's piano writing, some of his textures feel a bit uncomfortable as piano music, but we endure them because of their sublime values as absolute music. It’s like he doesn’t allow any compromise with his pure musical ideas, and we as players have to accept very small margins of accuracy and sound balance to get all accompaniment notes just right in our hand movements. Especially so in this composition, that has the added ambition of being a virtuosic concert showpiece! For me it even crosses the line into the domain of the impossible in some spots. But instead of throwing out the whole composition from my repertoire because of them, I have come up with solutions that keep he musical ideas in place, but clothed in slightly different textures that are much more feasible to play. For these most adapted “special spots”, I have marked them with big circled letters referencing a corresponding group of bars that can be found at the end of the document. There are also more places with suggestions of dropping only one or a few notes, which can sometimes work wonders for efficient hand movements!

You also see all of my decisions regarding fingerings, hand logistics and note redistributions. The latter is especially pertinent in the main theme of the first movement as well as the transition from the scherzo into the fugue. I have also noted a few interpretative points of tempo changes that are not specified by Schubert, but make for a good practical and musical rendering of the piece in my taste.

Music video recording:

A few of my suggestions in this edition is not played by me in this recording (e.g. hand crossings end of 3rd mvt). The reason for this is that I came up with them after I had done the recording playing the more difficult, original version, but I was still not completely happy with the result. This is often the case: the solutions come after trying the original when it really matters, in an answer to my pianistic limits.

Analysis video:

Henrik Kilhamn Edition

This edition series is the result of me working with difficult repertoire at concert performance level for a long time and having to find the best strategies for my own hands to play the incredible music in front of me. Fundamentally, this is something every pianist at an advanced level has to go through to get to know how their hands work. Not just size and grip range, but how it feels in different musical circumstances, what is an acceptable strain on the hand and what isn’t. The fingerings and marks in this edition are what feels best for my hands, and it is no guarantee that they will do so for other pianists. However, they feel like good solutions in general, all emanating from an ideal of efficiency and organicism of hand movement.

Concretely, there are two types of suggestions. One is completely on top of the compositional layer, accepting the score as it is and only adding instructions for the performer: fingerings, note redistributions, hands over/under coordination, pedal markings etc.

The other comes into play when the compositional demands on the performer are above either what is possible for any pianist to play (e.g. impossibly large chords), or just my personal level of technique, and it feels like I would never be able to play it right in concert. This is where you’ll see some notes crossed out, or the occasional rearranging of voices. They are my solutions that makes it possible to retain a higher degree of accuracy, musical flow (tempo), clarity or sound balance, where I feel that I cannot achieve that with what's written. They are compromises in their nature, but I have obviously tried to keep as much of the musical material as possible, and they are always my best alternatives after trying many different options. Also, they often come in close connection with a fingering suggestion, as one “package” of a solution. Here you might hear a voice in your head of some professor screaming that this is never acceptable and you are a failure for even considering it, but I’m here to say that that is wrong. Every sane pianist does it, except perhaps the top layer of prodigy virtuosos who have not experienced struggling with technical limits the same way the rest of us have.

However, what feels like an optimal compromise in a situation is also subject to personal preference in addition to technique. The purpose of this edition then is to give my suggestions, which you are free to pick and choose among as you like. In fact, I strongly recommend using another score as your own and only look at my edition as a secondary source, and then write in which suggestions you like and leave those you don’t need.