"The way into Schubert’s world is full of twists and turns... A lengthy progress towards what I’ve always thought to be the ultimate expression of the lightness of being ... For me, playing Schubert is the culmination of a voyage of self-discovery ... You’re plunged into the same self-doubt, experience the same joy he did. I can find my self in this intimate exchange.

Each one of his eight Impromptus is, in its own way, a microcosm of the Schubertian world, an echo of the Vienna that was so dear to him. For me, they are an inner-journey that consumes every waking hour, strips my soul bare and fuses all those hopes and uncertainties into one. I lose myself in them and can see myself more clearly as a result.

To me, that’s the very essence of the impromptus: an act of abandonment that calls life itself into question and gives proof to the brilliance of Schubert’s genius in all its intricate and astonishing complexity." François Chaplin