Two Impromptus

Andante in G flat major D899 No.3

Andante in B flat major D935 No.3

Of Schubert’s eight Impromptus, which were written in two sets of four each in 1827,

Although he was a master in the art of building extended movements on one theme only, Haydn never wrote anything as obsessive in its attachment to its singular material as Schubert’s Impromptu in C minor. It is a miracle of spontaneous development, its march-like theme recurring literally dozens of times and yet scarcely ever in a form in which it has been heard before. Unpredictable in which key it will alight on next, it is similarly unpredictable in mood: the same theme can be grim in C minor, expansively luxuriating in A flat or G major, melanchoy in G minor. Indeed, it is only in the last few bars that, after much vacillation, it settles for a mutedly happy ending in C major.

The other three Impromptus in the present set - which was written in 1827 for a publisher with so little faith in them that he issued only the first two and held the others back until twenty-seven years after the composer’s death - are all in ternary form with dramatically contrasting middle sections. The triplet figuration of the Allegro in E flat runs on without interruption, though not always as cheerfully as it begins, towards an abrupt modulation to B minor for the belligerent middle section. Though only briefly recalled after the reprise of the first section, the B minor material secures an unexpectedly grim ending in E flat minor.

The Andante in G flat is a wonderfully sustained song not quite without words - it is closely related to Schubert’s Schlegel setting Die Gebüsche - which retains its characteristic broken chord accompaniment between melodic line and bass line from the first bar to the last. In spite of its seamless continuity, however, there is a clearly defined middle section where, stirred by the change of harmony to E flat minor, the left hand joins in a passionate duet with the right.

Structurally, the Allegretto in A flat major seems to be little different from the Allegro in E flat major. In fact, it is its exact opposite in the sense that the charming melodious first section remains quite unaffected by the dramatic and recklessly modulating middle section in C sharp minor. On its reprise it waltzes unconcernedly towards the A flat major ending as though nothing had happened in the meantime.

Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)

Four Impromptus, D.935

Allegro moderato

Allegretto

Andante

Allegro scherzando

When Schubert’s Four Impromptus were first published as Op.142 - ten years after the composer’s death - Schumann reviewed them. He found it “difficult to believe that Schubert really gave them the title of Impromptus.” He was convinced that at least two and perhaps even three of theme were movements of a possibly incomplete sonata which Diabelli was offering to the public under a more commercial title. Schumann was writing without having seen Schubert’s manuscript where, in fact, they are quite clearly labelled as Four Impromptus. But, in spite of the evidence of the manuscript and its confirmation in a letter from Schubert to the publisher Schott, Alfred Einstein actually goes further than Schumann and argues that the Four Impromptus are a complete sonata in disguise.

Unable to blame Diabelli, however, Einstein attributed the deception to the difficulty experienced by Schubert in getting anything as ambitious as a sonata published. It is true that Schott was not tempted by this work even under the title of Four Impromptus and rejected it as “too difficult.” But all the evidence there is indicates that these Impromptus were written, at the end of 1827, as a follow-up to those which Haslinger had already chosen to publish under the title of Impromptus as Schubert’s Op.90. Besides, it would be more difficult to reject the combined opinions of Schumann and Einstein if they were not in such direct disagreement over the details. Schumann regards the first Impromptu in F minor as the first movement of a sonata because it is so complete in itself. Einstein’s opinion is that it is open-ended and “cries aloud to be carried further to a logical conclusion.”

A compromise opinion could be that Schubert originally intended the first Impromptu as a sonata movement - it is long enough for that - and then realised that it would look much happier under a less formal title. After all, none of the finished sonatas has a first movement of such fragmented and unpremeditated construction. What in a sonata movement would be called the first subject reappears twice, once in the middle and once at the end (each time in the tonic key of F minor), and is not developed. There is a variety of second-subject material in the relative major. But the most inspired part of the piece is an episode, beginning in A flat major, in which the left hand crosses a broken-chord figuration and gives voice to the two parts of a poetic dialogue between soprano and bass. After the recapitulation of the second subject in the tonic major and before the final return of the first subject, this episode reappears in F minor, giving the whole construction a rondo-like shape.

If, like Schumann, you can accept the first Impromptu as the first movement of a sonata, you can take the second Impromptu in A flat major as the second movement of the same sonata. It is neither slow movement nor minuet but a graceful combination of the two, with a more turbulent middle section in D flat. But where Schumann, surely, loses all credibility is in his dismissal of the third Impromptu in B flat major as “a set of moderately or completely undistinguished variations on an undistinguished theme.” He is referring to Schubert’s favourite Rosamunde melody! Perhaps the uncharacteristic virtuoso brilliance of the fifth variation disappointed Schumann, but it is difficult to imagine what he disliked in the rhythmic lilt of the first, the polonaise allusions of the second, the heroic character of the third (in B flat minor) and the contrastingly capricious nature of the fourth variation. To give credit where it is due, Schumann did doubt that the fourth Impromptu, though appropriately in F minor, could have belonged to the putative sonata. In which case, however, it is unfair to refer to the “casual construction” of a piece intended not as a sonata finale but as a spontaneous extension of a moment musical.