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| Album: | Piano Impromptus, D899, And D935 | Composer: | Franz Schubert |
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| Performer: | Alfred Brendel | Conductor: | N/A |
| Ensemble: | N/A | Genre: | Chamber Music |
| Dates: | Recording date N/A; Orig. release date 1989; Re-issue date N/A; | ||
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Review:
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Label: Philips Catalog: #028942223721 These things are cool. Impromptus are spontaneously invented pieces. Not sure how spontaneous they are, being written, but probably for real, they would have been played out by ear, and written up in detail later, I guess. My mum played a grand piano, a lot better than she said she did, too. Some recitals, once in a big hall in a Cornish mansion at Lanhydrock. That sticks in my mind since I was about 6 or so, but the thing that stays with me most is the power she'd put into these, especially the fast soaring ones. It's like flying, this music, and even if you don't have any memories to associate it with, it has plenty anyway. It hasn't stuck around for centuries just because people have said it was good, it's come from a guy who at the time was as controversial as many rock players are now. (Schubert had a melancholic edge at times that would make Godflesh inspired..) It's excellent stuff, ranging from hard aggressive flight to moments like finding a silent pool in a forgotten place, and it can make these changes within seconds. I read that the fourth impromptu of the first set, in Ab major, is in the depths of spiritual darkness. I always thought that one was an especially glorious flight. I don't know if this makes me a child of Satan, but what the hell... >:) It's awesome stuff. The pianist, Alfred Brendel, interests me. Sometimes he seems to have the kind of warm strength my mum put into playing this stuff, at others he seems analytical, like a doctor, not dissecting it, but watching carefully to see how it grows. If you've never heard these, try them. I'm not going to try to say anything to people who have, they know and probably have their own views. I'm hoping that people who've never tried classical, except the big sounding stuff, will try this. Classical, for me, has nothing much to do with firework displays, or poshplaces I can't afford to go to, but everything to do with something old enough to be timeless, that won't date or age gracelessly. Something that belongs to another world, before rock, and amplification, but has what it takes to survive ours.  |
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| Author: | Lostgallifreyan | Reviewed: | 24-02-2005 |
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