After Bach's Toccatas, the French pianist Amandine Savary offers a fascinating interpretation of Schubert's two cycles of Impromptus, superb, stylistically 'free' works that are finely...

After Bach's Toccatas, the French pianist Amandine Savary offers a fascinating interpretation of Schubert's two cycles of Impromptus, superb, stylistically 'free' works that are finely contrasted as regards structure, tempo, duration and character. The musical sweep Schubert gives these pieces - associating his name for posterity to that of this new form - enables her to go beyond virtuosity to breathe into them intense, sustained passion with at times unleashed violence. For their time the conception and the contents of these pieces were novel and from the very start of the first piece in each cycle, one can feel through the breadth of the material that Schubert's ambition goes beyond what had previously been the norm for such 'free' pieces, that the musical impulse is sweepingly different. For more than ten years Amandine Savary has performed in Europe, Japan, the USA, and Australia, building a substantial reputation as an accomplished and versatile pianist and chamber musician. She has taught piano and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music since September 2015.