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Impromptus

This is a 1962 performance by Alfred Brendel of Franz Schubert's Impromptus, Op. 90 & Op. 142 on a 1969 UK re-issue. Of Brendel, who would have been 31 at the time of the recording, the sleeve-notes say "he shows a particular preference for Mozart, and has been instrumental in bringing before the public unjustly neglected Schubert Sonatas" whereas nowadays he's probably best-known for his esteemed interpretations of the Beethoven Sonatas.  

After a paragraph about Brendel, the notes, by an un-named author, discuss the Impromptus in some detail. Despite the unalike opus numbers assigned to the two groupings of four pieces, they were apparently all written in the same year: 1827. "These eight pieces", the sleeve-noter adds, "were the outcome of publishers' urgings and requests for 'short pieces, not too difficult, and in easy keys'". The term Impromptu is misleading here, we're told. with the pieces being "anything but improvisations".

I've a definite preference for the Op. 90 pieces on Side A: all four are beautiful, and complement each other beautifully. Not that the Op. 142 pieces are bad by any means, just somewhat less to my taste. Brendel sounds very much at home in these works and I very much enjoy how he plays them.

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