Impromptu, Op.11 No.1

Description

Rimsky-Korsakov, known as one of the Russian Five, worked mainly in orchestral music and opera and left only a few solo piano pieces. Op. 11 is a set of four short pieces, Impromptu, Novelette, Scherzino and Etude, and this Impromptu is the first. The impromptu, familiar from Schubert and Chopin, is a kind of character piece with something of the freedom of improvisation.

It is in B major and 2/4. It lasts just over three minutes with 1,155 notes, about six a second on average. The range spans nearly six octaves, from C-sharp 1 to B6, the widest of the four pieces in Op. 11. It opens the set in B major with five sharps, and the Novelette that follows moves to B minor on the same tonic.

It is rated intermediate. Because it ranges from the bottom of the keyboard to the high treble, the task is to keep the tone even through large shifts and to keep the sound from blurring. Lower the playback speed, check the motion of each hand and the size of its shifts with the hand colours, and repeat leap-heavy passages with A-B looping. It is also worth finding the pedal changes while listening at full speed. The lowest note, C-sharp 1, needs an 88-key instrument.

A broad collection of standalone piano pieces not belonging to any specific set, offering hundreds of varied character pieces to explore and compare.