It's a gorgeous little piece. Simple, dark, beautiful. But Mozart never finished it! It was never published in his lifetime. He wrote all but the last ten bars in 1782. Was the music lost? Never finished? No one knows. Mozart died in 1791. Between 1804 and1806, a musician named August Eberhard Müller (most likely) finished the last ten bars. The piece was then published, and it became one of Mozart's most popular piano pieces.
For years everyone thought the Fantasy was 100% Mozart. Then in 1944, Paul Hirsch, a musician and collector of historical musical works, wrote an article suggesting that someone else had written the ending. Now most music historians believe this to be true.
Some current pianists have written their own ending to the piece. Listen to Mitsuko Uchida's version:
• Mozart Fantasy in D mi...
(00:00--5:25) Dr. Duane Hulbert performs Mozart's Fantasy No. 3 in D minor
(5:28) Dr. Hulbert talks about the piece.
(14:03) Dr. Hulbert talks about the ending of the piece and plays the ending in D major and then one in D minor.
Which do you prefer?
For more info, read Ephriam Hackmey's doctoral dissertation: MOZART’S UNFINISHED FANTASY
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FANTASY IN D MINOR, K. 397
scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bi...
Dr. Hulbert received his BA and MM from The Juilliard School of Music and his DMA from The Manhattan School of Music. Hulbert received the Gold Medal at the 1980 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and also won prizes in the 1981 Leeds Competition and 1985 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. He has performed as a soloist with symphonies across the United States and has given recitals at Merkin Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. In 2002, his recording of the piano works of late-romantic Russian composer Alexander Glazunov was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Solo Instrumental Recording. David Hurwitz of ClassicsToday.com called the CD “a production that makes the best possible case for this really excellent but sadly neglected repertoire.” Dr. Hulbert taught at the university level for over thirty years.
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