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Jean Sibelius
Rare gems by Sibelius
In the 1980s and 1990s Fazer Music signed agreements with
the heirs to the estate of Jean Sibelius whereby the company
agreed to make available a number of formerly unpublished
works which had remained unknown to musicians and the general
public. This important move ensured international distribution
for a substantial body of new repertoire from the pen of this
great composer. The works include items by the young Sibelius
as well as forgotten compositions from his mature period,
such as the Suite in D Minor [op. 117] which was written
in 1928-29 and so dates from his late period.
About the first publications
During the past years the image of Jean Sibelius (1965-1957)
has undergone a radical change with the rediscovery of his
music for stage and the reappearance of early versions of
some of his works in the concert repertoire. The most penetrating
insight into his development as a composer has, however, been
provided by the discovery of works he wrote as a young man.
Sibelius was already a chamber music composer of some distinction
even before he turned to his first great orchestral work,
Kullervo. A dozen or so large-scale works and several
dozen small pieces have been preserved from the years 1883-91.
All the works written towards the end of this period contain
the seeds of musical features that were to burst into flower
in his later music.
Most of the works that have been recently published for the
first time date from the latter part of the chamber music
period. There are also some miscellaneous items written in
later years, such as the incidental music for the play Ödlan
(The Lizard) for orchestra (1909) and the very first piece
known to have been composed by Sibelius, Vesipisaroita
(Water Droplets, 1875). The fact that these works are now
being published is of the utmost importance, because they
well deserve a place in the basic concert repertoire.
Orchestral music
The Overture in E Major and the Scène de
Ballet, both dating from 1891, are among the earliest
works written by Sibelius for orchestra. Infused with all
the freshness of youth, they also hint at the great symphonist
to come. The Scène de ballet astonished contemporary
audiences with its subtle distancing, the serious undercurrent
looking ahead to the Valse triste, its minor key and
its predilection for low strings and wind. Sibelius's handling
of the orchestra is surprisingly refined and colourful, including
oboe and cor anglais solos, a triangle and castanets. The
airiness and fanfares of the enchanting Overture in A Minor
herald a new, less inhibited classical period in the works
of Sibelius. The lively main section in the major and the
classical orchestration bear features that suggest an admiration
for Mendelssohn.
Like the serenade and the divertimento, the cassazione was
originally a piece of music for performance in the open air.
The Cassazione Op. 6 by Sibelius, sometimes known as
"Fantasia for Orchestra", was premiered in 1904
with the composer conducting. The world of sound in this one-movement
piece comes very close to that of the violin concerto and
the second symphony.
The Countess's Portrait is a charming, shortish work
for reciter and string orchestra based on a text by the Swedish
writer Anna Maria Lenngren with an addition by Zachris
Topelius. The narration is optional and the work can be
performed by string orchestra only. Music for the Play
"The Lizard" (Ödlan, 1909) contains two
items, the symbolic-expressive idiom of which shows Sibelius
at his most enchanting. The second of the two, lasting about
a quarter of an hour and depicting the death of the maiden,
makes a magic impression. The chromatic and whole-note motifs
and mysterious string tremolos are a direct forerunner of
Tapiola. Sibelius himself looked upon The Lizard as one of
his most delicate works.
The Wedding March, composed in 1911 for Adolf Paul's
play "The Language of the Birds", is anything but
a traditional wedding march, being highly colourful and more
in the nature of chamber music.
Having composed Tapiola and the incidental music to
The Tempest, Sibelius became engulfed in the "silence
of Järvenpää". During that time he was
not, however, completely idle, composing a host of small-scale
pieces and revising some of his earlier ones. It is from this
period that the Suite for Violin and String Orchestra
[Op. 117] dates, though it was not discovered until 25 years
after the composer's death. The suite is in three movements:
Country Scenery, Serenade, Evening in Spring, and
In the Summer.
Chamber music
Water Droplets and the Canon are early chamber
pieces by Sibelius: short and fairly easy to play. Water Droplets
was the first piece he ever wrote, at the age of nine. The
Duo for violin and viola is a later, slightly longer piece
of melodic charm probably written as an exercise. All three
pieces are excellent repertoire for young students and amateur
musicians.
Sibelius composed the three early cello pieces (Andantino
in C Major, Andante Molto in F Minor and Tempo di Valse,
"Lulu Waltz") towards the end of his chamber
music period. The longest of them, the Andante molto, has
a solo cadenza and was written for his brother Christian.
Jean Sibelius premiered the Tempo di valse with his brother
in Loviisa in August 1889. Sibelius wrote the beautiful Suite
in E Major for Violin and Piano for his own use; in the
1880s he was still mainly studying the violin and entertaining
hopes of a career as a violinist. The suite does indeed demand
a considerable display of skill, containing difficult passages
and a long solo cadenza in the first movement.
The Fugue for Martin Wegelius was originally to have
been the finale to Sibelius's A minor quartet but in the end
he abandoned it. Its tension lies in the syncopated theme
that presses impetuously towards its chromatic climax. Nothing
is known of how the Adagio for string quartet came
to be written. It would, however, appear from the manuscripts
that Sibelius originally intended it as the slow movement
of his quartet in B flat major (1890). This would explain
why, for example, it does not have a final climax, simply
ending with a recapitulation and cadenza.
The Suite in A Major for string trio was written as
a student exercise and first performed at a concert given
at the Helsinki Music Institute in 1889. Ferrucio Busoni
described the performance as follows: "We soon
pricked up our ears on realising that the music taking the
air was far above the standard of the usual student exercise..."
For the first time timbre becomes a major factor in Sibelius's
idiom in the A major suite, which also makes somewhat bold
use of rhythm and harmony for such a youthful work. The G
major trio is a product of Sibelius's mature chamber music
period. It was never finished, but the version published by
Warner/Chappell Music Finland has been constructed purely
from Sibelius's own material. The only complete movement,
Lento, is a combination of various forms and in itself
traces a symphonic span. Sibelius uses a similar one-movement
construction in his seventh symphony.
The F major sonata is the last and the most mature
of the violin works written by Sibelius in his youth. The
young Sibelius was strongly influenced by composers such as
Grieg, as can clearly be heard in the F major sonata. The
structure of the work is also more romantic than any of his
earlier works rooted in the classical tradition. In the Andante
he introduces aspects of folk music for the first time in
his music, thereby anticipating the "Finnish stamp"
of many of his works of the 1890s.
The Piano Quartet in C Minor is in variation form
- rare in early Sibelius. The introduction already reveals
that he was thinking along orchestral lines even as a young
student in Vienna. The piano quartet is, apart from a few
small pieces written in 1891, the last completed work of the
chamber music period. From then onwards Sibelius concentrated
solely on his Kullervo for nearly a year.
Solo works
Theme and Variations in D Minor for solo cello is
a beautiful, virtuosic work composed by Sibelius at the age
of 22. In it he makes wide use of trills, double stopping
and spectacular runs. The three piano pieces (To Longing,
The Cavalier and Spagnuolo) are published together, though
they originally appeared in magazines. The Cavalier is in
the nature of a military march in which the piano imitates
the instruments in the band from the tuba to the piccolo.
Florestan is a piano suite in four movements dedicated
to Adolf Paul and is accompanied by programme notes
written by the composer.
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