moments from live performances
free ensemble improvisation “love at first sound” concert
This is the end of our very first Love at First Sound Concert in London, and it is a freely improvised reflection on the journey we have just shared with the audience. Having performed repertoire from Bach, Dvořák and Berlioz among others, we finished the programme with gratitude to those composers as well as the audience members present. In rehearsals, we had agreed only that we would finish in a major key (and that it would most likely be D major as the previous piece ended in B natural minor). So we did!
Milton Court Concert Hall, London, 3/2022
three musical postcards:
mini improvisations on audience requests
In this segment of the concert (Love at First Sound, Helsinki Music Centre), we asked the audience members if they would like to send musical messagas, like Musical Postcards, to someone. We would ask a few questions about the message and its recipient, and the audience member would be invited to film it with their phone and send it to them. The three messages on this video clip are:
1) “Encouragement to my son who has had a hard time in school”
2) “I’m sorry for what I said the other day”
3) “I want to make you regret not coming to this concert with me”
Debussy: girl with flaxen hair & improvised story performance
The written piece is first performed for piano and cello, after which the ensemble launches into an improvisation with the storytelling premise, Who is this girl and what happened to her next?
After the freely improvised part (B section), the ensemble returns to play the composed text but with improvised elaborations (following the structural approach of A-B-A1).
flute duo improvises on roussel’s “Joueurs de flûte, Op. 27 (1924)"
A flute & piano duo include improvisation in their performance by using a "Theme & Variations" structural approach. In this performance, the opening theme (6 bars) of Roussel's "Joueurs de flûte" becomes improvisatorically developed through variations and interludes that bind them together.
Catherine Dreher, flute (HKB, Switzerland) & Hannah Csérmely, piano (RNCM, UK)
moments from workshop student’s final concert
A wonderful “trailer” of the fun-filled concert delivered by the improvisation workshop students at Crescendo Summer Institute, 2022, Tokaj.
hector berlioz: la captiva, op 12, with improvised postlude
In the improvised section, lyrics are also improvised, using inspiration from the original French text but in English as the concert was in London. This is a simply way to create a bit of accessibility to those audience members who are not familiar with the original composition or its language.
improvised arrangement of schubert’s ständchen, including instrumental prelude and postlude
Using the original score for voice and piano as starting point, in this performance, we improvisatorically created a piano trio accompaniment using the piano score. Guided by our love for his music, effort to both pay tribute to Schubert's written text, as well as learn his harmonic language, we wanted to demonstrate the historical ‘improvisatory approach’ to performance practice.
Improvised string trio Baroque Minuet
This moment demonstrates my path in studying stylistic improvisation, in this case, Baroque. This trio Minuet follows directly after performance of J. S. Bach’s solo cello Minuets d-minor I & II, and they are used as launching pad for our improvised one. Can you count the amount of parallel movements? It’s pretty low, I’m proud to say! The final chord, however, erupts in laughter as Valerie tries bravely to take us to finish on the Picard third… alas, minor on major follows, to everyone’s delight.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, 10/2017
Pauliina Haustein, cello, Isa Halme, violin, Valerie Lassfolk, viola
improvisation on audience request: prayer for ukraine 12.3.2022
Milton Court Concert Hall, London, 03/2022
Hugo Wolf: Mausfallensprüchlein
theme & improvised variations, 12/2019
Adaya Peled, soprano, Eran Sulkin, piano, Pauliina Haustein, cello