Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net
Impromptu
(Экспромт)
Op. 1, No. 2 (1863/64).
| Catalogue References | TH 122 ; ČW 99 |
|---|---|
| Date | 1863 or 1864 |
| Key | E♭ minor |
| Tempo/Section Listing | Allegro furioso (E♭ minor, 150 bars) |
| Instrumentation | Piano (solo) |
| Autograph Location | Lost |
| First Publication | Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1868 |
| Average Duration | 7 minutes |
| External Links | IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
 (downloadable score) |
History
The Impromptu was composed during Tchaikovsky's years as a student at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (1863–64), and found its way into print accidentally. Nikolay Kashkin said of this piece: "It was written much earlier and was set down in the middle of Pyotr Il’ich's other Petersburg work, but in this copy-book were some blank pages, on which a new composition [Scherzo á la russe] was written down... When P. I. Jurgenson wanted to print the Scherzo á la russe, [N. G.] Rubinstein took him the whole copy-book, but P. I. Jurgenson did not receive any instructions, and so he had engraved all the pieces he found. When Tchaikovsky saw the proofs of both pieces, at first he was surprised and annoyed that the Impromptu had also been engraved, but afterwards became reconciled to this irreversible fact" [1].
The Scherzo á la russe and Impromptu were published by Pyotr Jurgenson in 1868 as Op. 1, Nos. 1 and 2 respectively.
From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958),
p. 390
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston
Notes:
- Nikolay Kashkin, Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1896), pp. 49–50 [back]