I completed this piece thanks to the help of Chopin who, for the occasion, loaned me his Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, opus 66 for piano. All the materials in my piece (aside from a brief allusion to Schumann) come from this work: the harmonic colours, the pitches, but also the agitation in the writing, the overly abundant energy, the tension. A sort of cry expressing the ‘tortures of the soul’ that continue to plague contemporary human beings, in spite of the myth of a liberating technology. We remain unabashed Romantics…

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Impromptu 2 premiered on January 30, 1996 by Manuel Schweizer, piano, and Anne Gaudemer, keyboard both from the Ensemble Grame, during the concert Live from Lyon produced by SMCQ at Salle Pierre-Mercure in Montréal. Impromptu 2 was commissioned by the SMCQ with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

About this sound recording

This version of Impromptu 2 was performed by Brigitte Poulin, piano, and David Cronkite, keyboard, recorded at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur in July 2014, and remixed at the composer’s studio in November 2021.

Performers

• Brigitte Poulin, piano
• David Cronkite, keyboard

Composition

• 1994

Recording

• July 2014, Yves Daoust

Mixing

• August – October 2014, Yves Daoust
• November 4, 2014, Dominique Bassal

Remixing

• November 2021, Yves Daoust