Customer Reviews

Schubert: Impromptus, Opp. 90 & 142

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Schubert's Impromptus are among my most favorite piano music. Schubert is unique among composers in that he can evoke the most complex emotions out of the simplest and most irresistible melodies, and the changes of mood even within the space of a few bars are staggering in these pieces. To me they are the greatest measure of a pianist's heart, because while the technical challenges of the Impromptus are not enormous, a pianist must possess the kind of empathy necessary to follow the music's journey into the depths of human heartbreak and joy.

Because I love this music so much, I either own or have borrowed from libraries many interpretations--Perahia, Uchida, Zimerman, Pires, Kempff--yet Brendel remains the standard against which all the others must be measured. His approach to the Impromptus is deceptively direct, never overwrought and precious, and he just lays bare their infinite richness without holding back or muddying their overall effect.

My other favorite is Perahia, who is a little more restrained in his playing, and who is in his own way every bit as impressive as Brendel, so I'd have to say it is difficult to choose between the two. In the end I suppose it just comes down to personal preference, and here I have to go with Brendel, because his interpretations seem a shade less mannered and communicate to me the improvisatory (ie. the impromptu) nature of these compositions. Better though to own both, and hear for yourself the kinds of divergent responses these masterpieces cvan evoke.

These are performances of the highest order. In each piece, Brendel achieves a wonderful balance between fine detail and overall structure, tenderness and strength, heart and mind. A beautiful recording. I have not heard, nor can I imagine, anything better.

Being a young pianist myself, I was eager to listen to this CD, as I was starting to work on the Schubert Impromptu, Opus 90, No. 2. I enjoy listening to recordings to get ideas for dynamics and color to use in the pieces. This CD was far beyond my expectations. All of the pieces were gorgiously played, light and thoughtful as well, the latter being quite typical of Breandel. All in all, it is a fantastic recording that I am not able to stop listening to!

A lovely recording. I am not familiar with Alfred Brendel's work, so I wasn't expecting much when I bought this CD for $17. But it has proven to be worth every penny - while some claim that his performance of the impromptu's are more "masculine" than his female contemporaries, they shine with a resonance that is moving, skin-tingling, and even eye-watering at times. More people need to listen to Schubert!!! So buy this CD - you'll love it.

As far as I am concerned, Brendel plays the Impromtpus as they should be played: relatively sober and not to quickly, with exactly the right mixture of emotion and technicality. I have heard a number of performances, all using way to much tempo and emotion variation, depriving the music of its power. These pieces are too perfect to be subject to too much unneccessary interpretation. Undoubtalby the best recording of these masterpieces I have ever come across. Shivers down my spine every time. Enjoy.

I can't think of any disc of solo piano music I have ever enjoyed more than this one. Brendel's playing is magical, with tremendous insights at every turn. I fell in love with Schubert after hearing these pieces because they seem to convey so much inner thought and feeling. The piano is realistically balanced, not too far forward or recessed. This disc deserves the highest praise.

Being a snobby classical music aficianado and being 19 is tough, so I play this when no one is looking. I mainly bought this cd for Schubert's impromptu 3 in G flat, which is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have yet to hear. The inital purchase of this cd was 50% for me, 50% for other people to see that I had this cd and to commend me. However, as I have been playing this cd more and more, every impromptu has become important to me, and I listen to it only for myself now. The music is warm, heartfelt, and quite powerful. If you see just one track you like on this cd, buy it, and the entire cd will grow on you. Its incredible.

In the decade of the seventies, two pianists, emerged from Europe seemed to bewitch the great audiences around the world due their modernist concepts and his renovated repertoire: Alfred Brendel (1931) and Maurizio Pollini (1942).

It's good to refresh this fact, due 1970 was Beethoven' s bicentennial year, none of both was a real champion in Beethoven' s works.

It should not be mere coincidence Brendel decided to reside in London. According him, "the feeling must be the alpha and the omega of the interpretation" and "the piano by itself is not important, but must liberate the music's spirit"; these opinions visibly expressed an opposite tendency implicit into the romanticism musical. The intellectual approach established for many people the return to the objectivity in music where the player just should play what's written and nothing else.

Under these perspectives, the concept of the personal vision simply disappears and all the players should sound equal. This thinking current was extremely haza4dous, because established the homogeneity as the North and flattens the subjectivity and singularity of the artist.

However these Impromptus were recorded according this thinking pattern is carved in relief in this case.

The result was interesting, due there are a clear connection between Schubert and Schoenberg ; as a matter of fact in the last Sonatas of Franz Schubert there is a real breakthrough with the tonality into the musical speech, in order to to express the overall significance of the musical message, where the cosmos and not the individual (again the romantic concept appears) must be remarked to explore new horizons.

I would really like to remark the best impromptu achieved by Mr. Brendel was the third from the Op. 142 Simply overwhelming, exquisitely phrased.

So, here you have a performance unprovided of any sort of febrile sentimentalism or worst still, of embarrassing feeling.

It's appoint of view you may share or not, but the point to remark is to compare the set with another hard Schubert players (as Schnabel and Kempff in the thirties, Edwin Fisher and Lipatti in the forties, Badura Skoda in the fifties, Richter in the sixties, Brendel and Lupu in the seventies, Zimmermann and Pires in the eighties and Volodos and Uchida in the nineties)and to extract your own conclusions.

To my mind, respect to Schubert concerns, we should remind the genius is always contemporary. On the other hand as a Venezuelan poet once stated : "I have eyes, no points of view."

I've loved this CD for years. Recently bought another as a gift for friends who are also Brendel admirers. They tell me they may wear a hole in the disc, that's how much they love it.

i am not an expert but i love Schubert's IMPROMPTUS.This performance by Brendel was devoid of all sensitivity and emotion and seems matter of fact.I am immensely grateful to INGRID HAEBLER for a wonderful and sensitive readings of these otherworldly pieces.listen to Ingrid haebler playing the 5th impromptu to understand what i mean.There is mystical and delicate ,poignant quality about these pieces that Haebler brings to perfection.The shift in tempo and dynamics is quite a treat.none of these are to be found in Brendel's playing.IF you have not listened to Ingrid Haebler Playing the IMPROMPTUS you have not heard them at all!