Friedrich Kiel enjoyed great prestige as a professor of composition in Berlin where his many students included Stanford and Paderewski. As a teacher he remained broad-minded and undogmatic. His elegantly poised works show a rather conservative craftsman but one who absorbed the influences of the best of his contemporaries – Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt. The Six Impromptus are fully mature, thoughtful works with unexpected elements. Elizabeth Haughan’s album of Kiel’s piano works is available on 8.574703.