Franz Schubert composed a set of eight solo piano Impromptus (D. 899 and D. 935) in the summer and autumn of 1827, months before the creation of his Winterreise song cycle, and a year before his death at the age of 31. The title, suggesting an improvisatory character piece in three-part form (A-B-A) was chosen by Schubert’s Viennese publisher, Tobias Haslinger. Long before recordings, at a time when pianos were becoming increasingly inexpensive for the mass consumer, these pieces were played in homes as popular music.
In the opening of the Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op. 90, D. 899, a crystalline melody floats above a serene sea of arpeggios. With a sense of celestial aspiration, the expansive melody reaches upwards before falling back. It is at once a mediative nocturne and a prayer in the vein of Schubert’s Ave Maria. With sudden, transformative modulations, the Impromptu’s second section grows more turbulent. A new bass voice takes centerstage with rumbling trills and boldly rising triplets. There are echoes of the haunting, shadowy nighttime intruder of Schubert’s terrifying song, Der Erlkonig. For a moment, calm returns, and we seem to have escaped, until suddenly we are again confronted with its menacing presence.
With this unfolding drama, the G-Flat Major Impromptu takes its place alongside Schubert’s 600 songs, this time as a song without words.
Here is a recording by Krystian Zimerman:
Recordings
- Schubert: Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 90, D. 899, Krystian Zimerman Deutsche Grammophon
Featured Image: “Northern Sea in the Moonlight” (1824), Caspar David Friedrich