Adagietto | Franz Schubert - Impromptu D.899, Opus 90 - No. 4 | Maria João Pires @Adagietto | Uploaded January 2013 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Franz Schubert - Impromptu for piano in G flat major, D. 899/3 (Op. 90/4) | Maria João Pires
Recording: Haarlem, Concertgebouw, Lisbon, Palácio de Queluz, 1996

4 Impromptus D.935, Op. posth. 142:
Impromptu D.935, Nº 1 youtu.be/44OtKHKwQw8
Impromptu D.935, Nº 2 youtu.be/WQ0A3DG09eA
Impromptu D.935, Nº 3 youtu.be/ecYEOth-Oyw
Impromptu D.935, Nº 4 youtu.be/WL7uGd4k66M

4 Impromptus D.899, Opus 90:
Impromptu D.899, Nº 1 youtu.be/A2EyHtQ8J-g
Impromptu D.899, Nº 2 youtu.be/GQOQ57G9mf0
Impromptu D.899, Nº 3 youtu.be/DxRrMLnJq2M
Impromptu D.899, Nº 4 youtu.be/sIn6hM7t0Vw

Complete Impromptus: youtu.be/5yVZu05WZ9o

Complete Playlist: youtube.com/watch?v=5yVZu05WZ9o&index=9&list=PLF2ayhcb2yRWwjYotdsUNDiWyZbP79ZdA

"The Universal power of the greatest music - and some of the greatest music is Schubert's - comes from a prodigius coincidence: such music fits like a glove into the secret codes with which the body transmits its signals to the brain, and because body codes and music codes are the same, the brain treats the messages of such music as if they were coming from the heart, not the ear. Great music appropriates the transmission and enters the brain as both sound and pure feeling. And what is pure feeling? It is the reading of the very states of a living organism with which nature can compose any and all emotions, from the longing for the unattainable or the anguish of departure, to the resignation of the winter journey, the excitement that precedes adventure, the everpostponed visit to an otherwordly place. When the appropriation happens, the mind of the fortunate listener believes it is eavesdropping on the inner life of its being, connected to the source of existence and far, very far, from the mundane origin of the experience."
António R. Damásio, Neurocientist

The fourth and final of Schubert's first set of Impromptus, in A flat major, Op. 90, No. 4 (D. 899/4), recalls the texture of the second impromptu with its rapid passagework in the right hand above a more placid left-hand accompaniment. The fourth impromptu, however, begins in the tonic minor, making it seem, at least at the start, darker than the smoothly serene second impromptu. And although the outer section of the piece closes in the tonic major with a sweetly surging theme in the left hand, the central trio's dark melody in C sharp minor over pulsing chords in the left hand intensifies the work's feeling of desperation and despair. But the second half of the central section sings of faith and serenity in C sharp minor's dominant major: that is, in the impromptu's tonic major (G sharp major being the enharmonic equivalent of A flat major). Schubert returns to the outer section over a long sustained dominant, and although this dominant eventually resolves to the tonic minor of A flat, like the first outer section, the closing section is once again in the tonic major, bringing peace to the music at its end.