F.Schubert – Impromptu in La b maggiore Op.142 **************************************** Performed by Giovanni Mascellaro ***************************************** Franz Peter Schubert b.Vienna,Austria 31 January 1797 d.Vienna,Austria 19 November 1828 Franz Schubert was born the son of a school master who expected him to follow the same career. Being obedient to his father, Schubert did teach for a brief period but soon realized his true calling was in music. Schubert had a good voice and sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir (still in existence today) until his voice broke. Vocal music was to remain a penchant of Schubert’s music for the rest of his life, for he wrote some of the greatest lieder (German art songs) ever. He had a genius for melody and in his short life of 31 years, he composed over 600 songs, many of them still in the repertoire today. Schubert was never a great pianist himself but his piano works, especially the short pieces (Impromptus, Moment Musicas) and the sonatas are the staple of the modern day piano repertoire. He also managed to write one of the most technically exhausting and monumental works of all time, the “Wanderer Fantasie”. In this great work, his employment of thematic development devices was to influence Liszt and to some extent, even the leitmotive so much associated with Wagner. Schubert was also a great symphonist, writing 9 symphonies and leaving a number incomplete. In his later symphonies, the influence of Beethoven was evident and his …