Today’s post is one of my favorite Schubert pieces. Schubert’s Impromptus are short to moderately long character pieces that were an inspiration to the next generation of Romantic composers like Schumann, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms and others.
This one starts out having almost the character of a Ländler (a popular Austrian dance related to the waltz) but quickly reveals itself to be much more ambitious than one of Schubert’s short dances! The middle section also has a suggestion of something more exotic—Spanish perhaps?