Evening of Piano Improvisation

Evenings of piano improvisation are rather unconventionally conceived concert performances in a unique and original form created by their protagonist - the composer and pianist Jiri Pazour - jointly with his audiences.

The concert usually opens with a series of improvised creations that have been to some extent thought on in advance, e.g. on a folk song or another well-known melody in different musical styles. Here the improviser treats a single theme several times over in different musical idioms. The audience therefore has a chance to compare the musical languages of the Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, some music movements of the 20th century and even jazz or pop on the basis of a familiar melody. Next comes improvisation based on transformations of mood and impression, rather than musical style. Then the pianist varies the styles of well-known pieces, and offers his own improvised creations on themes from evergreen popular classics. Between the individual numbers in the concert the pianist talks to the audience and explains a certain amount about the kinds of improvisation that are coming.

In the second half of the concert the audience becomes co-creator of the programme. Before the interval the members of the public are asked to write their own themes on specially prepared pieces of paper. Anyone present has a chance to provide thematic material for improvisation in any form he or she likes and to propose the way in which it should be treated. The most usual suggestion consists of the name of a song or piece of music or a style and musical form, but the audience can also put forward a subject from outside music (love, fear, night landscape and so on). When the performer has collected up the themes from the public, the second half of the evening starts - improvised treatment of the proposed themes before the eyes of the audience.

Jiri Pazour's evenings of improvisation are always an unusual and absorbing experience both for music experts and for ordinary music-lovers.