Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/19/2013, uploaded on 01/27/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Franz Schubert's Impromptus are a series of eight pieces for solo piano composed in 1827, less than a year before he died. They were published in two sets of four impromptus each: the first set was published in the composer's lifetime as Op. 90, and the second set was published posthumously as Op. posth. 142.

Schubert’s impromptus are usually in ABA form (he will even label the center section “Trio” sometimes), but the Op.142 No.1 has been compared to a sonata-form movement: it presents two quite elaborate theme-groups, both extended and full of subordinate ideas, and then Schubert brings back both groups, as if recapitulating them – the effect is of a sonata-form movement without a development section.

This is generally wistful music, and despite moments of energy the atmosphere is subdued and dark. Schubert specifies that Op.142 No. 4 in F Minor should be performed Allegro scherzando, and there is an element of play about this lively music, which dances energetically along its 3/8 meter. This is brilliant music, and Schubert rounds it off with an exciting, very brief coda.       Jie Yuan

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.