Impromptu passionné is one of Mussorgsky's earliest surviving piano pieces. It is known in two slightly different versions; the earlier sketch is undated, but the revision bears a date of October 1, 1859, when Mussorgsky was twenty years of age. Both versions are dedicated to Nadezhda Opochinina, the younger sister of his friend Alexander Opochinin. More of Mussorgsky's works are dedicated to Opochinina than anyone else in his life. Speculation is rife that Opochinina was the woman alluded to when Mussorgsky's eighty-eight-year-old grandniece recalled, "Mussorgsky was in love with a certain woman to whom he proposed marriage, but she refused him because she was a great deal older. Yet she watched over him until she died and preserved friendly relations."

The Impromptu is indeed "passionate," and is hardly recognizable as the work of Mussorgsky. Rather it is a romantic "Feuillet d'album" reminiscent of Chopin and especially Robert Schumann, whose work was an important formative influence on Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky never referred to Impromptu passionné in letters, nor included it his work lists; however he inscribed the manuscript "to the memory of Beltov and Liuba." The meaning of this phrase was not made clear until Oskar von Riesemann published his book-length study of Mussorgsky in 1929. Von Riesemann discovered that this was a reference to a novel by Alexander Herzen, Who Is To Blame? In Herzen's novel, "Beltov is disappointed with life and with himself, until Liuba, by avowal of her love and the kiss she gives him, enlightens him as to the meaning of his existence, which, however, can never find its fulfillment, for Liuba belongs to another man."

This pleasing and melancholy work has never been a concert staple, but it is sometimes heard as filler music at the end of the hour on classical radio stations. It is familiar in style and listener friendly, but is not readily identifiable, even by "experts."

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