Fantasy in F minor for piano four hands D.940 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Watercolour of Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder (1825)

The Fantasia in F minor for piano four-hands D.940 (Op. posth. 103) by Franz Peter Schubert ( 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828), an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.

Franz Schubert began writing the Fantasia in January 1828 in Vienna, the last year of his life, and dedicated it to his pupil Caroline Esterházy. The work was completed in March of that year, and first performed in May.

It is one of Schubert's most important works for more than one pianist and one of his most important piano works altogether.

Countese Karoline von Esterházy

The Fantasia is divided into four movements, that are interconnected and played without pause. A typical performance lasts about 20 minutes.

1. Allegro molto moderato
2. Largo
3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
4. Finale. Allegro molto moderato

The basic idea of a fantasia with four connected movements also appears in Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, and represents a stylistic bridge between the traditional sonata form and the essentially free-form tone poem. The basic structure of the two fantasies is essentially the same: allegro, slow movement, scherzo, allegro with fugue. The form of this work, with its relatively tight structure (more so than the fantasias of Beethoven and Mozart), was influential on the work of Franz Liszt, who arranged the Wanderer Fantasy as a piano concerto, among other transcriptions he made of Schubert's music.

Musicologist Christopher Gibbs has described the work as "among not only his greatest but his most original" compositions for piano duet.

Franz Schubert in 1827 (portrait by Anton Depauly from 1828)

​Born in the Himmelpfortgrund suburb of Vienna, Franz Schubert's uncommon gifts for music were evident from an early age. His father gave him his first violin lessons and his older brother gave him piano lessons, but Schubert soon exceeded their abilities.

In 1808, at the age of eleven, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt school, where he became acquainted with the orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He left the Stadtkonvikt at the end of 1813, and returned home to live with his father, where he began studying to become a schoolteacher; despite this, he continued his studies in composition with Antonio Salieri and still composed prolifically. 

In 1821, Schubert was granted admission to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde as a performing member, which helped establish his name among the Viennese citizenry. He gave a concert of his own works to critical acclaim in March 1828, the only time he did so in his career. He died eight months later at the age of 31, the cause officially attributed to typhoid fever, but believed by some historians to be syphilis.

Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet), the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (Unfinished Symphony), the three last piano sonatas (D. 958–960), the opera Fierrabras (D. 796), the incidental music to the play Rosamunde (D. 797), and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795) and Winterreise (D. 911).

Appreciation of Schubert's music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the 19th century, and his music continues to be popular.

Oil painting of Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder (1875), made from his own 1825 watercolour portrait