Impromptus for Piano: 23 Events was commissioned by the CBC and was premiered by Peter Elyakim Taussig, who has had a long-standing relationship with the CBC since the 1970s. Similar to other works of the 1970s, Impromptus is divided into several brief “events,” a structure which rejects large-scale movement organisation. Weinzweig describes these events as “fragments whose time span varies from fleeting seconds to extended seconds—a series of shorter and longer piano events without chronology... .”
Weinzweig explains that Impromptus contains “juxtapositions of thematic quotations from the composer’s own work with interpolations of musical memories from years past.” Elaine Keillor describes Impromptus as a “parody of a piano recital,” filled with exaggerated gestures and references to the piano’s musical past, including a brief quotation of Chopin’s Minute Waltz, and nods to the piano style of Liszt, hymns, and boogie-woogie. Weinzweig’s advocacy of serialism emerges through the use of tone rows and reference to Anton Webern’s piano style.
Many of the event-based works of the 1970s incorporate theatricality. In Impromptus, Weinzweig asks the performer to turn each page “with a slow deliberation,” while certain specially-marked pages are to be turned more quickly. Weinzweig’s loving mockery of the piano recital tradition is best expressed in Event No. 20 - Mime. He provides the following instructions:
Written by Alexa Woloshyn