Impromptu
Choral piece by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1902)
Opus19
Text
LanguageSwedish
Composed1902 (1902)
PublisherBreitkopf & Härtel (1912)[2]
Duration7 mins. (orig. 6 mins.)[3]
Premiere
Date8 March 1902 (1902-03-08)[1]
LocationHelsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
ConductorJean Sibelius
PerformersHelsinki Philharmonic Society

The Impromptu, Op. 19, is a single-movement work for female choir and orchestra written in 1902 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which is a setting of the Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg's poem Unge hellener (Young Hellenics), premiered in Helsinki on 8 March 1902, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society and an amateur choir. The Impromptu was the middle item a program that also included two other first performances: the Overture in A minor (JS 144), which served as the opener; and the Second Symphony (Op. 43).[4][1]

Sibelius extensively revised the Impromptu in the spring of 1910, reducing the instrumentation and altering both the beginning and ending of the piece, the former of which now incorporated a second Rydberg poem, Bacchospräster (The Priests of Bacchus).[2][5] This version of the Impromptu received its premiere in Helsinki on 29 March 1912, with Sibelius conducting the Philharmonic Society;[6] "Nuori Laulu" and the Arbetets vänner female choir sang the choral part.[2]

Newspaper advertisement (in Finnish) from Uusi Suometar for the premiere of Jean Sibelius's Impromptu

Instrumentation

The revised version of the Impromptu is scored for the following instruments and voices,[2] organized by family (vocalists, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):

The original version of the piece called for much larger orchestral forces, including 2 trumpets, cymbals, bass drum, tambourine, and castanets.[1]

Discography

The Estonian conductor Eri Klas and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of the Impromptu in 1990 for Ondine.[2] The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

No. Conductor Ensemble Chorus Rec.[lower-alpha 1] Time Recording venue Label Ref.
1 Eri Klas Finnish National Opera Orchestra Finnish National Opera Chorus 1990 6:59 Roihuvuori Church Ondine
2 Osmo Vänskä (1) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1) Dominante Choir (1) 2004 6:57 Sibelius Hall BIS
† Osmo Vänskä (2) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2) Dominante Choir (2) 2004 5:27 Sibelius Hall BIS

† = original version (1902)

Notes, references, and sources

Notes
  1. ↑ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  2. ↑ E. Klas—Ondine (ODE 754-2) 1990
  3. 1 2 O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1565) 2006
References
  1. 1 2 3 4 Dahlström 2003, p. 78.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Dahlström 2003, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 78–79.
  4. ↑ Barnett 2007, pp. 146, 148.
  5. ↑ Barnett 2007, p. 205.
  6. ↑ Barnett 2007, p. 220.
Sources
  • Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11159-0.
  • Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
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