Classical Music | Piano Music

Franz Schubert

Impromptu Op. 90 No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 899  Play

Peter Maxwell Land Piano

Recorded on 12/27/2005, uploaded on 01/26/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

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

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Impromptu Op. 90 No. 2 in E-flat Major                                                    

Despite having a rather private career in which, "he never gave a concert, and, in fact, was lucky even to have a piano at his disposal for composing"[1] Austrian composer Franz Schubert is justly credited with having a very strong influence on today's romantic piano style. Today's two impromptus are among the most beloved from his output.  The first in E-flat Major is the source of many an analogy.  My favorite is perhaps that it is the musical impression of a string of pearls.  The G-flat Major Impromptu could be summarized as a showpiece for the 'singing tone'. These two pieces date from 1827, one year before Schubert died at age 31.    Peter Maxwell Land


[1] Dubal, David The Art of the Piano (1989, Hardcourt Brace; New York) p.400