It is an absolutely brilliant improvisation, typical of the classical period. Beethoven always improvised in his concerts, but this is the only one that has attained the status of a work. Strangely, Giovanni Biamonti classified it as of little importance, but I think - and many critics with me - that he was far mistaken.
From its very first measures, one perceives its restless instability, both tonal and harmonic, and this distinguishing mark is common to the entire work; in short, listening to it, we are already projected towards that style that characterized late Beethoven.
Dear Armando, this thought of mine arises precisely because this evening I read Giovanni Biamonti's words on your site and I asked myself: do you agree with him on this work?
I am at Santa Cecilia for a few days; I will reply to you as soon as I return.
The fantasy is a stimulating work, if only because the word "fantasia" appears very rarely in the Beethovenian compositional world (I believe only three or four times, including the "Fantesia" of Quartet Anhang 2 number 4 and just as little in the sketches.
And to think how much he improvised! In any case, you give me the stimulus to listen to it, here in Rome... certainly those rapid descents in sixteenth notes and all those triplet notes... right now I don't have the score at hand because I am writing to you from my iPhone, but if I remember correctly there is immediately another flourish of thirty-second notes and a few little groups here and there... Well!!! Come on! Judgment suspended until I look at it more closely!
We will talk in the coming days and I leave the floor to the others!
