Overview
Introduction
- Impromptu No 1 in E♭ major, Op 25 (1881)
Cortot compared the first impromptu to a rapid barcarolle, redolent of "sunlit water", combining "stylised coquetry and regret".
- Impromptu No 2 in F minor, Op 31 (1883)
Dedicated to Mlle Sacha de Rebina, the second impromptu maintains an airy tarantella rhythm. It is scored less richly than the first of the set, giving it a lightness of texture.
- Impromptu No 3 in A♭ major, Op 34 (1883)
The third impromptu is the most popular of the set. Morrison calls it "among Fauré's most idyllic creations, its principal idea dipping and soaring above a gyrating, moto perpetuo accompaniment". It is marked by a combination of dash and delicacy.
- Impromptu No 4 in D♭ major, Op 91 (1906)
Dedicated to "Madame de Marliave" (Marguerite Long), the fourth impromptu was Fauré's return to the genre in his middle period. Unlike much of his music of the period, it avoids a dark mood, but Fauré had by now moved on from the uncomplicated charm of the first three of the set. His mature style is displayed in the central section, a contemplative andante, which is followed by a more agitated section that concludes the work.
- Impromptu No 5 in F♯ minor, Op 102 (1909)
Nectoux describes this impromptu as "a piece of sheer virtuosity celebrating, not without humour, the beauties of the whole-tone scale." Morrison, however, writes that the work "seethes with unrest".
- Impromptu in D♭ major, Op 86 bis (Transcription of the Impromptu for harp, Op 86, 1904)
The last work in the published set was written before numbers four and five. It was originally a harp piece, composed for a competition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1904. Cortot made a transcription for piano, published in 1913 as Fauré's Op 86 bis. The outer sections are light and brilliant, with a gentler central section, marked meno mosso.
