# Six Impromptus

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.

## 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

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 | Runtimes | Runtimes | Runtimes | Runtimes | Runtimes | Runtimes | Rec. | 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. | 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 | |
| 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
* ↑ All runtimes are official, as printed on CD or LP liner notes.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ E. Tawaststjerna–BIS (CD–153) 1987
* ↑ A. Servadei–Olympia (OCD 631) 1997
* ↑ R. Lauriala–Naxos (8.553661) 1996
* ↑ I. Tateno–Canyon Classics (PCCL–00328) 1996
* ↑ E. Heinonen–Finlandia (8573–80776–2) 2000
* ↑ H. Gimse–Naxos (8.553899) 1999
* ↑ F. Gräsbeck–BIS (CD–1909/11) 2008
* ↑ C. Wyss–Capriccio (C5229) 2014
* ↑ E. Heinonen–Piano Classics (PCL10220) 2020
* ↑ J. Mertanen–Sony Classics (888751614222) 2015
* ↑ S. Rahman–Resonus Classics (RES10205) 2018
* ↑ M. Kihlgren–Sterling (CDA 1842–2) 2020
* ↑ T. Dostal–Label (ABCD 514) 2022
* ↑ J. Tong–Quartz (QTZ 2158) 2023
References
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dahlström 2003, p. 16.
* ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 15–16.
* ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 15, 666.
* 1 2 3 Dahlström 2003, p. 15.
* ↑ Barnett 2007, pp. 79, 84, 89, 91.
* ↑ Layton 1993, p. 190.
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.
* Layton, Robert (1993) [1965]. Sibelius. (The Master Musicians Series) (4th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028713222.