Impromptus at La Monnaie

‘Nobody can understand the pain of others and nobody can understand the joy of others. We always think we are getting closer to each other but, in reality, we only ever walk side by side,’ noted Franz Schubert in his diary in 1824. This leitmotiv of harmony unfulfilled finds resonance three years later in the piano cycle Impromptus which he composed in the form of short pieces of a free construction. These pieces are amongst the most beautiful works that he wrote in the final creative phase of his life. By choosing four of these pieces for a new work, the choreographer Sasha Waltz tackled a work from the classical repertoire for the first time. Her expressive language here gives way to pure dance, the bodies organise themselves into intimate virtuoso duets, split up into dynamic groups, inspired as much by the music itself as by its underlying mood : from melancholy to joy... Ten years later the magic of her Impromptus is still there.