The Fantasie on Two Motives from Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" (also known as the Figaro Fantasy) is an operatic fantasy by Franz Liszt. Liszt began the work in 1842, and he performed it at least once in Berlin in the following year. However, it was never published, and Liszt's manuscript is incomplete, and contains no tempo indications, dynamics, or interpretive directions. The Fantasie was published for the first time in 1912 by Breitkopf & Härtel, edited by Ferruccio Busoni. The full title of the edition was "Franz Liszt Fantasie über zwei Motive aus W. A Mozart's Die Hochzeit des Figaro nach dem fast vollendeten Originalmanuskript erganzt und Moriz Rosenthal zugeeignet von Ferruccio Busoni". Franz Liszt (Hungarian; Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ... In music, dynamics refers to the volume or loudness of the sound or note, in particular to the range from soft (quiet) to loud. ... 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ... Dante Michaelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni (April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, music teacher and conductor. ...

Liszt based this piece on two arias from the opera The Marriage of Figaro: "Non più andrai" and "Voi che sapete". The opening is a very free paraphrase of "Non più andrai", followed by a more faithful arrangement of "Voi che sapete". "Non più andrai" returns afterward, followed by three variations on this theme. The coda is very similar to the fanfare at the end of "Non più andrai" in the Mozart opera. Le Nozze di Figaro, is a comic opera composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Beaumarchais. ... Coda (Italian for tail; from the Latin cauda), in music, is a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion through prolongation. ...

The original Liszt manuscript contained an additional 15 pages of music devoted to the minuet from Don Giovanni. Busoni obviously did not consider this section worthwhile and eliminated it for his edition; it has even been suggested (Sitsky, 235) that Liszt never intended the minuet to be part of his fantasy and the manuscripts were shuffled together by accident. In addition to this cut, Busoni added some small sections, including 16 bars at the end, and put in extensive markings and pianistic suggestions. This article is about the dance. ... Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. ...

The Figaro Fantasy was performed extensively by Busoni, his student Egon Petri, and was later championed by Vladimir Horowitz. However, it has fallen out of the standard pianist repertoire. Stephen Hough and Jean-Yves Thibaudet still perform this work occasionally. Egon Petri (March 23, 1881 - May 27, 1962) was a classical pianist. ... Vladimir Horowitz (ru: Владимир Самойлович Горовиц) (October 1, 1903 (or 1904)–November 5, 1989) was a classical pianist. ...

References and external links

• Larry Sitsky, Busoni and the Piano, pages 235-236. Published 1986 by Greenwood Press.

• Kenneth Hamilton, "Liszt Fantasises — Busoni Excises: The Liszt-Busoni 'Figaro Fantasy'". Published in the Journal of the American Liszt Society Volume 30 (1991), pages 21-27.