Impromptu Opus 90 No. 2

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

The Impromptu No. 2 from Opus 90 (in E flat major) is a challenge of velocity and regularity. The main work lies in the right hand, which runs across the keyboard in uninterrupted scales and arabesques, demanding a perfectly even touch and great lightness. The contrast is striking with the central section in B minor, with its darker, more vigorous dance rhythm, which calls for a firmer attack and precise handling of accents. It is a complete work for developing both a pearly touch and expressive power.

Composed in 1827, just one year before the death of Franz Schubert (1797-1828), this second Impromptu bears witness to the maturity of a composer able to transform a virtuoso exercise into a poetic journey. Although the title “Impromptu” suggests a free improvisation, Schubert deploys a rigorous structure in which the light of E flat major finally gives way to the tragic force of the ending in E flat minor. This piece embodies the very essence of German Romanticism: a quest for beauty and movement constantly overtaken by shadow and unease.