Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 07/09/2014, uploaded on 12/02/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Schubert wrote two sets of Impromptus for solo piano, both written close to the end of his life, and both possessing great spontaneity and improvisation.  At the center of the second impromptu lies the dramatic relationship between the opening soaring, surging melody and the cathartic middle section written in the remote key of b minor. These two opposing forces collide and create a great sense of tension and drama, all happening within the contours of a miniature piece.  Even though the entire first section returns bringing a glimmer of hope after the middle section, it is that middle part that ultimately prevails at the end bringing the piece to its devastating conclusion.     Alon Goldstein

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Impromptu in E-flat major op. 90 (D. 899) no. 2      Franz Schubert

Suggesting the air of an extemporized performance, the Impromptu as a musical form came about during the earliest days of the Romantic movement. The first known use of the word, in this sense, was in 1817 and was used by a publisher to describe a piano piece by Czech composer Jan Václav Voříšek. It is possible that the Impromptus of Voříšek were influential on Franz Schubert's own contributions to the genre much in the same way Chopin drew inspiration from the Nocturnes of John Field.

Schubert's Impromptus, published in two sets of four, were written in 1827. The first set was published during his lifetime while the second was published shortly after his death in November 1828. They are considered companion pieces to the Six Moments Musicaux, also composed around the same time.

The second Impromptu, in E-flat major, forms a large ternary design. It opens with a scalar melody in triplets, accompanied by chords below it, which dominates the outer sections of the piece. These elements combined give it a much more improvisatory feeling than the first Impromptu. The outer sections, themselves, embody a smaller ternary form in which the middle portion moves to the tonic minor key. The accompaniment is only slightly modified and the triplet figures of the right hand give only the slightest hint of a lyrical tune hiding amongst them. After a return of the opening E-flat major section, a brief codetta in E-flat minor sets up a daring modulation to the key of B minor leading into the Impromptu's middle section. Marked and impassioned, the middle section's melody is an ingenious derivation from the material of the opening section. The triplet rhythm remains present though relegated to the accompaniment of the melody. However, as the end of the middle section is approached, the triplets are brought more to the fore and form the transition back to the material of the opening section. After a recapitulation of the opening section, a coda based on the middle section closes the piece. It begins first in its original key of B minor, though it quickly finds its way back to the tonic of E-flat. However, the final cadence does not come in the key of E-flat major as expected, but instead, closes in the tonic minor.       Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.