Six Impromptus

Six Impromptus
Piano solos by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1891)
Opus5
Composed1893 (1893)
PublisherAxel E. Lindgren [scores] (1894)
Duration14.5 mins

The Six Impromptus (in German: Sechs Impromptus), Op. 5, is a collection of compositions for piano written in 1893 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

1892 sketch of Sibelius at the piano by his future brother-in-law Eero Järnefelt
Sibelius (1927) plays the Steinway grand piano at his home, Ainola.

Structure and music

Impromptu No. 1
The first impromptu is in G minor. Marked Moderato, it has a duration of about two minutes.
Impromptu No. 2
The second impromptu is also in G minor. Marked Lento – Vivace, it has a duration of about two minutes.
Impromptu No. 3
The third impromptu is in A minor. Marked Moderato (alla marcia), it has a duration of about three minutes.
Impromptu No. 4
The fourth impromptu is in E minor. Marked Andantino, it has a duration of about two minutes.
Impromptu Nos. 5 and 6
The fifth impromptu is in B minor. Marked Vivace, it has a duration of about 3.5 minutes, The sixth impromptu, on the other hand, is in E major; marked Comodo, it lasts about two minutes. In 1893, Sibelius reused themes from Nights of Jealousy (Svartsjukans nätter, JS 125)—an 1893 melodrama for narrator, vocalise soprano, and piano trio to poems by J. L. Runeberg–for Nos. 5–6 of the Six Impromptus. In 1894, he combined the fifth and sixth impromptus into an arrangement for string orchestra and titled the new piece Impromptu.

Reception

Erik Tawaststjerna, who authored seminal biography on Sibelius, was an early, vocal advocate for many of the composer's piano pieces.

Robert Layton dismisses the Six Impromptus as "for the most part ... feeble and uninventive".

Discography

The Finnish pianist Erik T. Tawaststjerna made the first studio recording of the complete Six Impromptus in 1979 for BIS; of these, Nos. 3–4 were world premieres. The remaining four pieces had been recorded earlier, with premieres as follows: No. 1–2 by the Swedish pianist Stig Ribbing [sv] on His Master's Voice (HMV 7 EBS 5, 1956); No. 6 by the German pianist Horst Minkofski-Garrigues for Telefunken-Decca for (MG 4468, 1968); and No. 5 by the Japanese pianist Izumi Tateno on EMI (5E 063–34472, 1971). The sortable table below lists, in addition to the aforementioned Tawaststjerna traversal, other commercially available recordings of the complete Six Impromptus:

No. Pianist Runtimes Rec. Recording venue Label Ref.
Op. 5/1
Op. 5/2
Op. 5/3
Op. 5/4
Op. 5/5
Op. 5/6
Total
1 Erik T. Tawaststjerna 1:46 2:03 2:49 2:11 3:25 2:12 14:51 1979 Nacka Aula [sv], Nacka BIS
2 Annette Servadei [ja] 1:50 1:58 2:08 2:34 3:31 2:56 14:59 1992 Christ's Hospital, Horsham Olympia
3 Risto Lauriala 1:40 1:44 3:08 2:42 3:49 1:45 14:48 1995 Järvenpää Hall [fi] Naxos
4 Izumi Tateno 1:49 1:44 2:51 2:14 3:59 2:10 14:47 1995 Ainola Canyon Classics
5 Eero Heinonen [fi] (1) 2:50 1:57 3:01 2:27 3:24 3:11 16:50 1996 YLE M2 Studio, Helsinki Finlandia
6 Håvard Gimse 2:19 1:38 2:12 2:13 3:08 7:00 18:35 1997 St Martin's Church, East Woodhay Naxos
7 Folke Gräsbeck [fi] 1:53 1:51 2:33 2:07 3:36 6:02 18:22 2003 Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm BIS
8 Cassandra Wyss 3:00 2:05 3:59 2:27 3:39 2:28 17:38 2014 Andreaskirche am Wannsee [de], Berlin Cappriccio
9 Eero Heinonen [fi] (2) 2:29 1:50 2:29 2:17 3:17 2:49 15:11 2015 Sello Hall, Espoo Piano Classics
10 Janne Mertanen 2:20 1:51 2:34 2:29 3:26 3:50 16:30 2015 [Unknown], Helsinki Sony Classical
11 Sophia Rahman 2:11 2:02 2:24 1:45 4:03 5:05 17:30 2017 Sidney Sussex College Chapel Resonus Classics
12 Maria Kihlgren 2:07 1:51 2:49 2:09 3:48 6:24 19:19 2019 Studio 2, Swedish Radio Sterling
13 Terhi Dostal [fi] Alba [fi]
14 Joseph Tong Quartz

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dahlström 2003, p. 16.
  2. ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 15–16.
  3. ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 15, 666.
  4. 1 2 3 Dahlström 2003, p. 15.
  5. ↑ Barnett 2007, pp. 79, 84, 89, 91.
  6. ↑ Layton 1993, p. 190.

Sources