Jacques Leguerney: Fantaisie in g minor for piano
by Jacques Leguerney
Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

Piano Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.533316

Composed by Jacques Leguerney. 20th Century,Concert,Standards. Score. 37 pages. Musik Fabrik Music Publishing #2343073. Published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing (A0.533316).

Fantaisie en sol mineur pour piano
I. Grave
II. Scherzando
III. Bien allant
Date de composition : 17 septembre 1945

In 1945 Leguerney finished composition of the Fantaisie en sol mineur pour piano, written in three movements. He felt an “extraordinary enthusiasm” for this piece, which he felt represented a departure from the current writing style for piano. He said in an interview with Patrick Choukroun in 1994 that “I wanted to show that one could write lyrically for the piano. The piano music of Francis Poulenc lacked strength.” The work was immediately performed in a private concert at the home of the Countess Jean de Polignac by the French pianist Monique Haas (1909-1987) in December 1945. The fact that she was
chosen to perform Leguerney’s Fantaisie is a key to the style of this work which Leguerney felt emulated the expressive force of Cesar Franck’s works. Haas was a distinguished concert artist, especially known for her performances of 20th century music, with which she toured worldwide. French pianists of her generation tried to avoid the excess of the “romantic” school and strove for cleanness and precision with a warm tone color reflecting the influence of Alfred Cortot.

Leguerney remembers that both Poulenc and Henri Sauguet were present at this private concert, but he noted that they did not comment about his piece. He felt it was obvious that his Fantaisie was “far from the habitual level of piano music” being composed at that time. These post-war years were Leguerney’s most productive period. In addition to the Fantaisie, he
composed the Sonatine pour violin et piano, the Quatuor à cordes, and many fine songs including the cycle Sept Poèmes de François Maynard. The 1940s finished with the composition of his first ballet, Endymion. The first public performance of the Fantaisie was given by Stéphane Petit-Jean in the Cloître Saint-Sauveur at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence on July 28, 1988 during a recital for Radio France that included songs of Leguerney interpreted by Nathalie Stutzmann. The concert was later
broadcast as Une heure avec . . . Jacques Leguerney and also included the song cycles Sept Poèmes de François Maynard, La Nuit and Le Carnaval.

The work is dedicated to Jean Fonda, the stage name of Jean-Pierre Fournier. He was the son of the famed French cellist Pierre Fournier. Before the performance at Aix-en-Provence, Leguerney showed the score of the Fantaisie to Fonda, who encouraged him to have it performed. It is possible that the dedication was made at this time.