Impromptu
A collection of Impromptus, Fantasies and Impressions for piano solo, played by Brian Chapman. Although only two pieces carry the title Impromptu, many of the other works share an improvisatory quality.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composer
Ludwig van Beethoven composer
Enrique Granados composer
Isaac Albéniz composer
Claude Debussy composer
Beethoven's simply constructed 'easy' sonata may well have been a written-out improvisation, published years later when encroaching deafness made composition and publication more vital than public performance. We might fairly call 'doodling' the manner of commencement of Mozart's Fantasia in D minor, the two Spanish pieces and the first four of the Debussy selections.
Artist

Brian Chapman
Born in England in 1944, Brian Chapman studied piano in Brisbane with Nora Baird from 1952, and in Melbourne from 1954 with Lindsay Biggins, J.A. Steele and Roy Shepherd. After obtaining his AMusA performing diploma in 1958, he discontinued piano lessons the following year for five years, returning to study with Roy Shepherd in 1964.
Tracks
- Impromptu in G flat, Op. 90, No. 3 Franz Schubert
- Impromptu in A flat, Op. 142, No. 2 Franz Schubert
- Fantasia in D minor, K. 397 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Minuet in D, K. 355/576b Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Allegro, ma non troppo
- Tempo di minuetto
- Minuet in G, WoO 10, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven
- Andante – Allegro – Tempo I
- Allegro molto e vivace
- Adagio con espressione
- Allegro vivace – Tempo I – Presto
- Goyescas The Maiden and the Nightingale Enrique Granados
- Iberia, Book III El Albaicín Isaac Albéniz
- Suite bergamasque Clair de lune Claude Debussy
- Footsteps in the snow
- The girl with the flaxen hair
- The engulfed cathedral
- Estampes Gardens under rain Claude Debussy
Sonata in G major, Op. 49, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata quasi una fantasia in E flat, Op. 27, No. 1 Ludwig van Beethoven
Preludes, Book 1 Claude Debussy
Performers
Composers

Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) was a Spanish pianist and composer whose piano music, steeped in folk idioms, helped give Spanish art music a distinctive national voice.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a German composer and pianist whose music stands at the centre of the Western classical tradition, bridging the Classical and Romantic eras.

Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was a French composer whose harmony, colour and flexible sense of key reshaped European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Piano, orchestral and chamber works from his maturity remain central to the repertoire.

Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados was born in Lérida in 1867. He studied the piano and composition in Barcelona and then in Paris, returning to Barcelona in 1889, and won distinction as a pianist and popularity in Spain with his zarzuelas and piano music.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He wrote over 600 works, many of them pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music, and remains among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. In only thirty-one years he left a vast body of work, including over six hundred Lieder, and remains among the most frequently performed composers.
Where to listen
Impromptu is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MCD 426
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Release date
- 2009
- Musical work
copyright - © 2009 Brian Chapman
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2009 Move Records
- Categories
- Classical, Keyboard
- Genre
- Romantic & Impressionist
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574042627
Related recordings

Winter Journey
For this recording of Schubert’s Winterreise, Op. 89 (D. 911), pianist Brian Chapman prepared a new English translation and, with baritone Nathan Lay, recorded the full cycle in English and German across two CDs, presented with a lavish 56-page book of 24 paintings by Lucy Chapman.