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Sarah Walker presents Schubert Plus, with music performed by the pianist Charles Owen, recorded at St Mary's Church, Hay-on-Wye, during the 2023 Hay Festival. The concert begins with two popular Impromptus by Schubert, starting with the Impromptu in G flat, D899/3, worked on during the summer of 1827 and completed after his visit to the city of Graz. The long serene melody possibly depicts how much he’d enjoyed those summer months. The Impromptu D935/3 from December that same year Schubert originally numbered as part of a continuation of the group he’d written over the summer, and not a second distinctive set. This work is similar to the slow movement of his String Quartet in A minor, with a beautiful flowing theme, but one which the composer Schumann criticised.

The concert continues with works by two other composers. Franz Liszt composed his Années de pèlerinage, troisième année, whilst he was staying in a suite of rooms at the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, a 16th-century mansion, not far from Rome. It’s a set of seven works, and in the fourth tone poem Liszt depicts the fountains of the villa. It’s one of the composer's most popular evocations of water and includes within the score a quote from the Gospel of St John. Charles Owen ends with music by César Franck from 1884, his Prélude, Choral et Fugue, which may have been inspired by the music of Bach. Franck composed this work after a period of writing works for the organ, and although it’s a popular work with pianists today and recorded many times, the composer Saint-Saëns questioned whether it was really a chorale, or a fugue.

Charles Owen, piano

Schubert: Impromptu in G flat, D899/3
Schubert: Impromptu in B flat, D935/3
Liszt: Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este, S153/4
Franck: Prelude, Choral et Fugue

Produced by Luke Whitlock