Schubert Impromptu op 90 no 1

[beebert]

Hi everyone! I got this piece to work on by my teacher, and I wonder, what technical difficulties can one find in this piece? My teacher says this is the best piece to play out of Schubert's op 90 impromptus if you want to improve technique, but when I am looking at the score, I considered it being the opposite... Is the piece even difficult? I mean, I can almost sightread through the first five pages or so... Can anyone help me understand what my teacher means? The piece is wonderful, I must say, although, I prefer the op 90 no 2 and the op 142 no 3, which were the two I wanted to play, but my teacher said this one was better for technique and more difficult, and I find it hard to agree her two opinions.. What do you guys think?

[iansinclair]

not sure it's "best" -- depends on what you want to work on.  But for dynamics, yes indeedy -- just the first measure.  Hand independence and tempo evenness -- anywhere that it's 3 against 2 or 4 (lots of places).  Independence of fingers -- lots of places where bringing out the theme against the rest of the notes.

Probably not so hard for an accomplished technician to get the notes right.  It's a bear to get it to sing...

[paulhuang]

I'm teaching this piece to one of my students. She's struggling through it, but if you can sight-read the first five pages, I'm not sure if you have anything to learn from this piece. That said, you can probably have it learned and memorized quickly, so why not?

The main challenges I think are more about voicing, especially in the section with the triplets. There are also some slightly bizarre key changes, which might pose a phrasing dilemma.

The second has more notes (and hence would take longer to learn), but I wouldn't say it's more challenging. A lot of it is just going through the E-flat scale. Then again, if you don't have, say, evenness of tone in your scales, this would probably be a good musical exercise for that.

[beebert]

thanks for your answers! I looked through some forums and other places to find some information about the op 90 no 1. What I found was that it is ranked grade 10 and by some even ARCT, which makes it diploma level and the same difficulty level as for example pathetique.. Can this really be true? :S

[bruced]

thanks for your answers! I looked through some forums and other places to find some information about the op 90 no 1. What I found was that it is ranked grade 10 and by some even ARCT, which makes it diploma level and the same difficulty level as for example pathetique.. Can this really be true? :S

I'm not sure I get it, beebert.  First, you don't agree with your teacher and, I suppose, you want us to confirm that she is "wrong" - just as you posted in another forum.  Now you question the placing of the first impromptu in the RCM examination syllabus.  Why not stop fretting about level of difficulty - or relative level of difficulty - and just enjoy learning the music?

As others are trying to point out to you, difficulty is not just in the notes, the speed, or the particular figures in a given piece; difficulty is also about interpretation.  In a piece such as this, one of the interpretive difficulties is conceiving the piece as a whole and giving it structure.  There are technical difficulties, too:
- creating a single, singing line over a triplet accompaniment
- carefully matching two against three
- voicing repeated three-note chords to bring out harmonic subtleties
- voicing of inner melodies (measures 96 through 107, for example)
- subtle left-hand syncopation

The biggest challenge though, with all the typically Schubertian repeats is to get it to hang together structurally and to give it direction, without it "sounding" boring or repetitious.

Regards,

[amelialw]

It's true that the first 4 pages are sight readable however it is not easy!! Try pushing it up to the actual speed and you'll discover then that there's alot of little details that need to be worked on...everyone else has stated the challenges above already

I recently learned and performed this impromptu and it was not till my teacher pushed the speed up till I discovered how difficult this piece can be

[j_menz]

This is certainly the one of Op90 that has the most technical challenges, and the greatest number of them.  Getting the notes in order and at speed is not that difficult, but the dynamics are a real challenge.  It's the one that seperates the sheep from the goats in the recordings as well.

Played well, it's actually my favourite of the 4.  It's the one I enjoy playing most, too. (Those two sentences are not necessarily related  )