Six Humoresques

The Six Humoresques, Opp. 87 and 89, are concertante compositions for violin and orchestra written from 1917 to 1918 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Despite spanning two opus numbers (due to publishing technicalities), the composer, who originally considered calling the humoresques impromptus or lyrical dances, intended them as a suite. They are the:

• Humoresque No. 1 in D minor, Op. 87/1. Commodo
• Humoresque No. 2 in D major, Op. 87/2. Allegro assai
• Humoresque No. 3 in G minor, Op. 89/1. Alla gavotta
• Humoresque No. 4 in G minor, Op. 89/2. Andantino
• Humoresque No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 89/3. Commodo
• Humoresque No. 6 in G minor, Op. 89/4. Allegro

The Six Humoresques premiered on 24 November 1919 in Helsinki, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; the soloist was the Russian-Finnish-American violinist Paul Cherkassky. Also on the program was the definitive version of the Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major (Op. 82), as well as Song of the Earth (Op. 93), a cantata for mixed choir.

In the autumn of 1940, Sibelius revised No. 1's instrumentation (most notably, he eliminated the harp part); the original, while promised to Wilhelm Hansen in February 1917, was never published. The violinist Arvo Hannikainen premiered the revised No. 1 on 15 December 1940, with Toivo Haapanen conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Hansen, who had published the other five humoresques in 1923, completed the set in 1942. The 1917 version is extant.