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*Impromptu*
Impromptu
Choral piece by Jean Sibelius
	The composer (c. 1902)
Opus	19
Text	Unge hellener and Bacchospräster; by Viktor Rydberg;
Language	Swedish
Composed	1902
Publisher	Breitkopf & Härtel (1912)
Duration	7 mins. (orig. 6 mins.)
Premiere
Date	8 March 1902
Location	Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
Conductor	Jean Sibelius
Performers	Helsinki 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 [sv] female choir sang the choral part.^[2]

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):

Female choir (SSAA)
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, and 2 bassoons
4 horns
Timpani and triangle
Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, double basses, and harp

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.^[a]	Time	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
1	Eri Klas	Finnish National Opera Orchestra	Finnish National Opera Chorus	1990	6:59	Roihuvuori Church [fi]	Ondine	^[b]
2	Osmo Vänskä (1)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1)	Dominante Choir [fi] (1)	2004	6:57	Sibelius Hall	BIS	^[c]
†	Osmo Vänskä (2)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2)	Dominante Choir [fi] (2)	2004	5:27	Sibelius Hall	BIS	^[c]

† = original version (1902)

Notes, references, and sources

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. Klas—Ondine (ODE 754-2) 1990
^ ^a ^b O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1565) 2006

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Dahlström 2003, p. 78.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dahlström 2003, p. 79.
^ Dahlström 2003, pp. 78–79.
^ Barnett 2007, pp. 146, 148.
^ Barnett 2007, p. 205.
^ 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.