Six Impromptus

Composed1893

PublisherAxel E. Lindgren [scores] (1894)^[1]

Duration14.5 mins^[2]

Six Impromptus
Piano solos by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1891)
Opus	5
Composed	1893 (1893)
Publisher	Axel E. Lindgren [scores] (1894)^[1]
Duration	14.5 mins^[2]

The Six Impromptus (in German: Sechs Impromptus),^[3] 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.

Impromptu No. 1: The first impromptu is in G minor. Marked Moderato, it has a duration of about two minutes.^[4]
Impromptu No. 2: The second impromptu is also in G minor. Marked Lento – Vivace, it has a duration of about two minutes.^[4]
Impromptu No. 3: The third impromptu is in A minor. Marked Moderato (alla marcia), it has a duration of about three minutes.^[4]
Impromptu No. 4: The fourth impromptu is in E minor. Marked Andantino, it has a duration of about two minutes.^[1]
Impromptu Nos. 5 and 6: The fifth impromptu is in B minor. Marked Vivace, it has a duration of about 3.5 minutes,^[1] The sixth impromptu, on the other hand, is in E major; marked Comodo, it lasts about two minutes.^[1] 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.^[5]

Reception

Robert Layton dismisses the Six Impromptus as "for the most part ... feeble and uninventive".^[6]

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.^[1] 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).^[1] The sortable table below lists, in addition to the aforementioned Tawaststjerna traversal, other commercially available recordings of the complete Six Impromptus:

No.	Pianist	Runtimes^[a]							Rec.^[b]	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
No.	Pianist	Op. 5/1	Op. 5/2	Op. 5/3	Op. 5/4	Op. 5/5	Op. 5/6	Total	Rec.^[b]	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
1	Erik T. Tawaststjerna	1:46	2:03	2:49	2:11	3:25	2:12	14:51	1979	Nacka Aula [sv], Nacka	BIS	^[c]
2	Annette Servadei [ja]	1:50	1:58	2:08	2:34	3:31	2:56	14:59	1992	Christ's Hospital, Horsham	Olympia	^[d]
3	Risto Lauriala	1:40	1:44	3:08	2:42	3:49	1:45	14:48	1995	Järvenpää Hall [fi]	Naxos	^[e]
4	Izumi Tateno	1:49	1:44	2:51	2:14	3:59	2:10	14:47	1995	Ainola	Canyon Classics	^[f]
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	^[g]
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	^[h]
7	Folke Gräsbeck [fi]	1:53	1:51	2:33	2:07	3:36	6:02	18:22	2003	Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm	BIS	^[i]
8	Cassandra Wyss	3:00	2:05	3:59	2:27	3:39	2:28	17:38	2014	Andreaskirche am Wannsee [de], Berlin	Cappriccio	^[j]
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	^[k]
10	Janne Mertanen	2:20	1:51	2:34	2:29	3:26	3:50	16:30	2015	[Unknown], Helsinki	Sony Classical	^[l]
11	Sophia Rahman	2:11	2:02	2:24	1:45	4:03	5:05	17:30	2017	Sidney Sussex College Chapel	Resonus Classics	^[m]
12	Maria Kihlgren	2:07	1:51	2:49	2:09	3:48	6:24	19:19	2019	Studio 2, Swedish Radio	Sterling	^[n]
13	Terhi Dostal [fi]										Alba [fi]	^[o]
14	Joseph Tong										Quartz	^[p]

v t e Jean Sibelius
List of compositions Discography of symphony cycles
Symphonies	Kullervo (1892) Symphony No. 1 (1899, rev. 1900) Symphony No. 2 (1902) Symphony No. 3 (1907) Symphony No. 4 (1911) Symphony No. 5 (1915, rev. 1916, 1919) Symphony No. 6 (1923) Symphony No. 7 (1924) Symphony No. 8 (mid 1920s–c. 1938, abandoned)
Concertante	Violin Concerto (1904, rev. 1905) Two Serenades (1912–1913) Two Serious Melodies (1914–1915) Six Humoresques (1917–1918, No. 1 rev. 1940) Suite for Violin and String Orchestra (1929)
Tone poems	En saga (1892, rev. 1902) Spring Song (1894, rev. 1895) The Wood Nymph (1895) Lemminkäinen Suite 1895, rev. 1897, 1900, 1939; includes The Swan of Tuonela Finlandia (1899) Pohjola's Daughter (1906) Nightride and Sunrise (1909) The Dryad (1910) The Bard (1913) Luonnotar (1913) The Oceanides (1914, rev. 1914) Tapiola (1926)
Opera & theatre	The Building of the Boat (1893–1894, abandoned) The Maiden in the Tower (1896) King Christian II (1898) Kuolema 1903; includes Valse triste Pelléas et Mélisande (1905) Belshazzar's Feast (1906) Swanwhite (1908) The Lizard (1909) The Language of the Birds (1911) Scaramouche (1913) Everyman (1916) The Tempest (1925)
Cantatas	Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1894 Cantata for the Coronation of Nicholas II (1896) Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1897 The Origin of Fire (1902, rev. 1910) The Captive Queen (1906) My Own Land (1918) Song of the Earth (1919) Hymn of the Earth (1920) Väinämöinen's Song (1926)
Other voice(s) & orchestra	The Rapids-Rider's Brides (1897) The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River (1899) Snöfrid (1900) Marjatta (1905, abandoned) Impromptu (1902, rev. 1910) The Raven (1910, abandoned)
Other orchestral	Overture in E major (1891) Ballet Scene (1891) Karelia Suite (1893) Rakastava (1894, arr. 1912) Scènes historiques I (1899, arr. 1911) Overture in A minor (1902) Romance in C major (1904) Cassazione (1904, rev. 1905) Pan and Echo (1906) In memoriam (1909, rev. 1910) Scènes historiques II (1912) Suite mignonne (1921) Suite champêtre (1922) Suite caractéristique (1922)
String quartets	String Quartet in E-flat major (1885) String Quartet in A minor (1889) String Quartet in B-flat major (1890) String Quartet in D minor, Voces intimae (1909) Andante festivo (1922, orch. 1938)
Piano trios	Piano Trio in A minor, Hafträsk (1886) Piano Trio in D major, Korpo (1887) Piano Trio in C major, Lovisa (1888)
Other chamber	Water Droplets (c. 1875–1881) Pieces for brass septet (1889–1899) Piano Quintet (1890) Malinconia (1900) Violin Sonatina (1915)
Piano	Six Impromptus (1893) Piano Sonata (1893) Ten Pieces, Op. 24 (1895–1903) Kyllikki (1904) Three Sonatinas (1912) The Bells of Kallio Church (1912, arr. 1912) Two Rondinos (1912) Five Pieces, The Trees, Op. 75 (1914) Five Pieces, The Flowers, Op. 85 (1916–1917) Five Esquisses (1929)
Songs	Seven Runeberg Songs, Op. 13 (1891–1892) "Serenad", JS 168 (1894–1895) Six Songs, Op. 36 (1899–1900) Five Songs, Op. 37 (1900–1902) Seven Songs, Op. 17 (1891–1904) Five Songs, Op. 38 (1903–1904; includes "Höstkväll") Six Songs, Op. 50 (1906) Two Songs, Op. 35 (1908) "Kom nu hit, död", Op. 60/1 (1909, orch. 1957) "Arioso", Op. 3 (1911) Five Christmas Songs, Op. 1 (1897–1913; includes "Giv mig ej glans, ej guld, ej prakt") Six Runeberg Songs, Op. 90 (1917)
Choral works	Hymn, Op. 21 (1896, rev. 1898) Songs for Mixed Chorus from the 1897 Promotional Cantata (arr. 1898) Finlandia Hymn (1899, arr. 1938–1940) Six Partsongs, Op. 18 (1893–1901) Song of the Athenians (1899) Jäger March (1917)
Family	Ainola (home) Aino Sibelius (wife) Ruth Snellman [fi] (daughter) Heidi Blomstedt (daughter) Christian Sibelius (brother) Aulis Blomstedt (son-in-law) Jussi Jalas (son-in-law) Jussi Snellman [fi] (son-in-law) Alexander Järnefelt (father-in-law) Elisabeth Järnefelt (mother-in-law) Armas Järnefelt (brother-in-law) Arvid Järnefelt (brother-in-law) Eero Järnefelt (brother-in-law) Kasper Järnefelt [fi] (brother-in-law)
Teachers	Helsinki Music Institute: Martin Wegelius (theory, composition) Mitrofan Vasiliev (violin) Hermann Csillag [de] (violin) Post-graduate studies: Albert Becker Robert Fuchs Karl Goldmark
Pupils	Toivo Kuula Leevi Madetoja Bengt de Törne [fi]
Colleagues & friends	Juhani Aho Aino Ackté Granville Bantock Ferruccio Busoni Axel Carpelan [fi] (patron) Olin Downes Ida Ekman Richard Faltin [fi] Ida Flodin [fi] Karl Flodin [fi] Akseli Gallen-Kallela Heikki Klemetti [fi] Santeri Levas (secretary) Erkki Melartin Oskar Merikanto Rosa Newmarch Abraham Ojanperä Selim Palmgren Adolf Paul Wilhelm Stenhammar Karl Wasenius [fi]
Select interpreters	Sir Thomas Beecham Paavo Berglund Sir Colin Davis Neeme Järvi Paavo Järvi Robert Kajanus Herbert von Karajan Serge Koussevitzky Hannu Lintu Sakari Oramo Eugene Ormandy Sir Simon Rattle Jukka-Pekka Saraste Georg Schnéevoigt Leif Segerstam Leopold Stokowski Osmo Vänskä
Select biographers	Fabian Dahlström [fi] Karl Ekman [fi] Erik Furuhjelm [fi] Glenda Dawn Goss Cecil Gray Robert Layton Nils-Eric Ringbom [fi] Erik W. Tawaststjerna
Namesakes	International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition Jean Sibelius Quartet Sibelius (2003 film) Sibelius (scorewriter) Sibelius Academy Sibelius Academy Quartet Sibelius Glacier Sibelius Hall Sibelius Medal Sibelius Monument Sibelius Museum Sibelius Piano Trio Sibelius Society of Finland 1405 Sibelius (asteroid) Wihuri Sibelius Prize
Category

Reception

Discography

Notes, references, and sources

External links

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