In November 2015, Impromans was invited to perform in the Danish concert series Orenaes Saloner. For this performance, we prepared a salon concept, using a mix of audience interaction techniques of audience interaction from literary sources of the 19th century, such as written suggestions on paper notes from the audience. We also made short improvisations on words from the audience, and an improvisation based on our impressions of a painting in the room.
For the next version of the salon, at Suellska Villan in Malmö, we worked with songs by the Italian/Swedish improviser and composer Mathilda d’Orozco and the German composer Josephine Lang. In the work, we investigated ways of combining improvisation and interpretation, adding cadenzas, ornamentations and variations into the songs. The salon Night landscapes (Nattlandskap), performed in May 2016, combined our improvisations in dialogue with the audience and the songs with presentations of the life of Mathilda d’Orozco, with quotes from her letters. We also performed excerpts of the ballade Die Nacht by Franz Schubert as interludes in a presentation on aspects of images in Schubert’s music made by musicologist Tobias Lund.