Imogen Cooper | Heart and Soul | Schubert - Complete Impromptus

"A true poet of the piano, Imogen Cooper allows her instrument to express her innermost thoughts." (Wigmore Hall programme)

Programme:

Franz Schubert

Four Impromptus D899 op.90

Four Impromptus D935 op.142

Schubert, famed for transforming poetry into divine melodies,did not invent the concept of the Impromptu. Free-form, improvised music had been around for centuries. Such compositions were called Fantasias. As a pioneer of the Romantic Movement, which valued spontaneous emotional expression above all else, Schubert called these (carefully crafted) improvisations Impromptus. His genius was the ability to write haunting music for the piano that encapsulates all human feelings from hope and joy to pain and despair. His Impromptus were not taken seriously in his lifetime but they inspired Chopin and Liszt and the Impromptu as a genre became a significant part of the 19th century solo piano repertoire.

The Austrian composer and music publisher Anton Diabelli who had an ear for good tune became the first to publish Schubert's work. After the composer's death Diabelli bought most of Schubert's massive collection of unpublished works from his brother Ferdinand Schubert, and systematically released them onto the market little by little over 30 years, claiming that each one was a newly discovered masterpiece. Schubert had composed all the Impromptus in 1827 but only 1, and 2 of op.90 were published in his lifetime. All four of Schubert's op.142 Impromptus were published in 1839, but Diabelli did not publish Impromptus 3, and 4 of op.90 until 1857.