Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner The most BORING music on the planet...,.

has to be Schubert's tiresome Impromptus, D899.

What is it with Schubert? He cannot do anything wrong? The first Impromptu chases its tail in a rather embarrassing manner, the second Impromptu is a funny attempt at an etude, the third Impromptu tries so hard to be sublime, and the forth tries to be unique -we're experimenting with Ab minor- but ultimately it's tiresomely predictable.

Schubert wrote a lot of music which is demonstrably superior... I just don't think the D899 represents him as his best. Comments?

Tell us you're kidding.

There's no accounting for taste. I don't think you can get more boring than 4'33", at any rate...unless you write a "4 hours and 33 minutes".

As McEnroe said...

"You cannot be serious!"

I got my biggest ovation ever for that piece.
Which of course isn't saying much.

But, it's high art is it not? Actually, I agree. A complete waste of bandwidth.

Seriously? Cool! It's a joke between me and my teacher. Whenever she asks me what I want to perform for a recital, I always reply with 4'33". I've never been allowed to yet! One of these days she ought to let me.

(BTW.......I shortened it to 30 seconds.
And I divided it into movements.)

To approach the OP seriously (or try to).....

In truth, many people feel that way about much Schubert, especially the longer works. If you catch me in a certain mood, I might even say that about the great posthumous B-flat major Sonata. It's great, but it can be borderline 'boring,' even (IMO) with a great performance. (Especially if the dreaded repeat is taken in the 1st movement.)

I find it harder to say anything like that about the shorter Schubert works, although to tell the truth I might almost say it about that 1st impromptu (the C minor). It's the least performed of this set, and I think of all the Schubert impromptus altogether, and IMO with good reason.

P.S. About "repeats" in general: It's a big subject for debate, and most serious musicians usually seem to say "take the repeats." I think that if we polled audiences, the opinion would be almost unanimous -- on the other side.

I'm half hoping this will hijack the thread. Maybe better to argue about repeats than whether Schubert's impromptus are the most boring music on the planet.

ahh that kinda reminds me since I'm still working on Mozart's twinkle twinkle little star 12 variations. Every one of them has a repeat and well, I don't repeat them and the vids on youtube that I've seen on the 12 variations don't repeat all of them over either. Only a few vids on utube seem to play exactly as Mozart has it with all 12 repeating after eachother. I just find it kind of pointless to go through all the repeats again playing the exact same thing but maybe there's a point? :)Oh and sorry, never listened much to Schubert so can't help on that one :P

A few years ago, a friend played that in an amateur competition. As it happened, not only did she play all the repeats, she also took a very slow tempo, so she ran way over the time limit. The judges stopped her. And the director of the event was heard muttering, "Yeah, we don't need to hear every variation of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star......"

Alright you guys! I have an Easter service to play in a matter of hours, and I'm pissed off at Schubert. Christ has not quite risen yet.

But I am assured of a wonderful lunch after my Anglican service... yes, I will have a Bloody Mary...

Aha!! The root of the problem!!!!

aww I actually like all 12 variations but I wouldn't like to repeat all of them and most people play them fairly quickly so the song is like 5 and a half mins or so. Not too bad I would think :P

So now Schubert's silly and idiotic 'Introduction & Variations' for flute and piano are now considered great music? Who besides yours truly has actually suffered through this nonsense?

What utter bilge. I hated every moment of it. Terrible music, if Schubert's name were not attached to it, would anyone give it anything other than a miss? Face it: Schubert bombed out. He was too busy writing too much music, that was his problem.

Over and out. Happy Easter!

Sadly, I'm not familiar with a whole lot of Schubert's music. What I have listened to I like, but nothing that really stands out to me (solo piano, that is), except the G flat Impromptu. I don't get tired of that piece.

Honestly, I'm not all that crazy about Schubert. The great Bflat sonata is, however, without a doubt, a masterpiece. I also love the little A major sonata. The impromptus? I could probably take them, or leave them, though I did play the Eflat (899/2) for an encore once.

Not good enough for the printed program, eh?

(IMO it's a great piece as an encore or for the printed program.)

Haha. It does, actually, make a great encore. They're not "bad" works, at all (the impromptus, that is), but they don't really grab me. Some of the sonatas have their moments, but then, wow, he comes up with the Bflat and you're left wondering what else he'd been hiding up his sleeve.