Move Records Australian classical & art music, est. 1968

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.

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

Photograph of Brian Chapman

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

  1. Impromptu in G flat, Op. 90, No. 3 Franz Schubert
  2. Impromptu in A flat, Op. 142, No. 2 Franz Schubert
  3. Fantasia in D minor, K. 397 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  4. Minuet in D, K. 355/576b Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  5. Sonata in G major, Op. 49, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven

  6. Allegro, ma non troppo
  7. Tempo di minuetto
  8. Minuet in G, WoO 10, No. 2 Ludwig van Beethoven
  9. Sonata quasi una fantasia in E flat, Op. 27, No. 1 Ludwig van Beethoven

  10. Andante – Allegro – Tempo I
  11. Allegro molto e vivace
  12. Adagio con espressione
  13. Allegro vivace – Tempo I – Presto
  14. Goyescas The Maiden and the Nightingale Enrique Granados
  15. Iberia, Book III El Albaicín Isaac Albéniz
  16. Suite bergamasque Clair de lune Claude Debussy
  17. Preludes, Book 1 Claude Debussy

  18. Footsteps in the snow
  19. The girl with the flaxen hair
  20. The engulfed cathedral
  21. Estampes Gardens under rain Claude Debussy

Performers

Composers

Photograph of Isaac Albéniz

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.

Photograph of Ludwig van Beethoven

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.

Photograph of Claude Debussy

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.

Photograph of Enrique Granados

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.

Photograph of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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.

Photograph of Franz Schubert

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
Musical work
copyright
© 2009 Brian Chapman
Sound recording
copyright
℗ 2009 Move Records
Categories
Classical, Keyboard
Genre
Romantic & Impressionist
Barcode
EAN 9314574042627

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Front cover art for Winter Journey

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.