IMPROMPTUS - BERTOGLIO

IMPROMPTUS ( CVLD233 )

Author : FRANZ PETER SHUBERT
Performer : CHIARA BERTOGLIO

Notes

Classical. Original compositions by Franz Peter Shubert. Chiara Bertoglio grand piano.
24bit/88.2 kHz original live-in-studio recorded, in Velut Luna Studio, Preganziol, Italy, on August 7- 2012.

Among Franz Schubert's piano works, the eight Impromptus op. 90 and op. 142 are perhaps among the best known and most performed pieces, and are certainly proposed and listened to much more often than many of the enchanting Sonatas. It therefore seems useless to repeat here, in the inevitable brevity imposed by the size of a booklet, the analyses and studies that have been made of them; perhaps it is more useful for me to limit myself to offering the reader a "presentation" of these pieces, a guide that integrates with the key to understanding that I propose with my interpretation.
I have a very long relationship with the Improvvisi, which for some of them has now been going on for more than twenty years; and I can say that they are true musical “friends”, who have woven with their discreet and constant presence my path as a musician and as a person.
Those of op. 90 have more defined characters, and clearer, more limpid structures. Schubert's extraordinary imagination and his emotional richness are still channeled into "clean" forms, with the alternation and juxtaposition of different levels of compositional articulation. No. 1 plays entirely on the contrast between the martial rhythm of the incipit and the softness of a melody accompanied by a murmur of triplets. No. 2 is simple only in its macrostructure, which alternates sections of uninterrupted scales, almost waves of notes, with a Trio and a Coda of almost barbaric aggressiveness; however, the dance rhythm that runs through it is the same in both sections, with the accent landing askew on the second movement of the bar.
Justly famous is No. 3, a sort of wordless Lied that it would be very reductive to define as a simple accompanied melody. The richness of a pervasive and omnipresent harmonic texture makes it much more similar to a polyphonic piece, in which the liquidity of the harmony allows its contrapuntal richness to emerge, veiled by the enchantment of a melodic contemplation. No. 4 strings together a series of garlands of arpeggios that alternate with the absorbed stasis of the chords and an ascending progression on the singing of the left hand that admirably builds the climax that concludes both the first part and the entire impromptu. Enclosed between the extreme sections, a Trio of infinite beauty, almost a prayer in which, once again, the internal voices of the chorale are made palpitating by the repetitions and the reiterations.
Op. 142 is on the one hand more compact, so much so that Schumann hypothesized a sonata-like conception (an approach that I personally share), on the other hand more indecipherable. Each of the four Impromptus that compose it (and which as such were renamed by the first editor) displays a kaleidoscope richer in emotions and more difficult to interpret than those of op. 90.
No. 1, in particular, presents a very complex series of unforgettable moments: the solemn and tragic opening, which inaugurates not only this piece but the entire series; the changing reverberations of a subject that hides among the tremolos; the “duet” in which the left hand responds to itself, continually overriding the circular and hypnotic movement of the right.
More homogeneous is the stylistic figure of n. 2, unique in its reconciling of the forms of the chorale, the Lied and the dance: it is perhaps the mystical peak of the Impromptus, with a serene, composed and absorbed beauty. N. 3, composed of variations on a theme from Rosamunde, leads us on an itinerary that proposes, in miniature, all the great themes of Schubertian romanticism: the circular rhythm of the first variation, the joy of living of the second, the hopeless darkness of the third, which opens to dance in the fourth and dissolves into a shower of scales in the last.
The cycle concludes with No. 4, rich in Hungarian folk movements, with a theme that overflows with energy and vivacity, once again not without deliberate barbarism. And once again Schubert shows us the melodic and narrative potential of scales, which here are proposed in an almost obsessive way and colored by the harmonies of the left until they become a musical resource of unimaginable charm.
To complete the CD, Franz Liszt's versions of the Impromptus op. 90 no. 2 and no. 3 are proposed here. In Liszt's interpretation, no. 2 increases its virtuosic connotation (for example with the addition of "filler" notes) and accentuates the "Hungarian" character of the Trio and the Coda. No. 3 is instead transported by Liszt to the more comfortable and - above all - less problematic, mysterious and obscure key of G major (from the original in G flat); in the reprise of the main theme, Liszt proposes a very personal rewriting, which recalls the atmospheres of the very famous Liebestraum.
Chiara Bertoglio

Production: Velut Luna & Chiara Bertoglio
Executive & Recording Producer: Marco Lincetto
Recording, Mix & Mastering Engineer: Marco Lincetto
Editing: Mattia Zanatta
Photos: Marco Lincetto
Design: the image
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