Schubert: Impromptu No 1, Op 90

Little Franz Peter Schubert was never able to recover from the low glamour disease (as opposed to tuberculosis) he contracted around 1823: syphilis, a somewhat shameful disease and with no cure at the time. By 1827 he had already suffered several relapses; one of them, shortly after visiting Beethoven that year in his dying bed, whom he revered with all his soul and heart but barely knew.
For more than twenty years, both musicians lived in the same city, Vienna, Schubert's hometown, and the one Beethoven adopted. But they never became close because they would frequent very different social circles.

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Beethoven's death was a serious blow to Franz and it accentuated the depression that would accompany him the last years of his life. The courageous, jovial and sociable Franz in his twenties became sullen and withdrawn at thirty (almost the crossing of Ludwig due to deafness). However, this did not prevent him from working hard at the end of 1827, perhaps in an attempt to fight the depression. The Trios for piano and string, the Musical Moments and the Impromptus are from that time.

The name "impromptu" is a suggestion of his editor. Schubert was not the first to use it, although it can be said that he owes the boom it acquired in the romantic period. Impromptus are short pieces, formally close to Chopin's nocturnes, with a deep musicality along with a certain drama despite belonging to a musical language full of grace and charm.

Schubert's Impromptus are a series of eight pieces, divided into two groups of four, Opus 90 and Opus 142 (also named D. 899 and D. 935, respectively; the D recognizes the work of Otto Erich Deutsch, who managed to summarize all of Schubert's work in 1950).

Impromptu No. 1, from Opus 90, in C minor, is presented here in the rendition of  Chinese-American pianist Eric Lu.

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