16. Crespo Series

Two Fantasies of Forbidden Love

The fabled opening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata inspired another great composer to describe it as 'one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify'. It quickly became one of the most famous pieces ever composed, as magical an opening for a recital as you could wish for. Beethoven composed this glimpse of immortality for one of his beloved students, Giulietta Guicciardi. As a Countess she was way beyond his reach, but the implacable ferocity of the Finale speaks of the intensity of his feelings for her. Schumann’s Fantasy also speaks of forbidden love. Clara, his beloved, was banned from meeting with him for almost two years, but she found a way to play his pieces on her concert tours. The Fantasy quotes liberally from Beethoven’s song cycle 'An die Ferne Geliebte' (To the Distant Beloved), which Clara saw as a message to her. So the lovers spoke to each other in music, he wrote music for her full of coded secret messages, she played the music all over Europe.