Post by erik on Feb 12, 2023 0:00:00 GMT -5
Finland's greatest composer, Jean Sibelius, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with his dark and moody Fourth Symphony, written during a trying time in his life, and a work that seems to foresee what would befall the world in a few short years.
Sibelius: SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN A MINOR, OP. 63
Though many of his works reflected how much pride he had for his native country of Finland, there were times when Jean Sibelius had his moments of darkness as well; and as was the case with many a composer before him, some of that darkness and moodiness inevitably spilled out into his work. One such case in point was his Symphony No. 4, composed during 1910-11. Far more than any of the symphonies or tone poems that reflected the icy and wintry beauty of Finaldn, the Fourth Symphony, a work that lasts 35-40 minutes and is scored for a large (but not over-the-top) orchestra, including a glockenspiel, was seen by many critics as the composer’s foretelling of what was to happen to the world in a few short years (i.e., the onset of World War I). Also, three years earlier, in 1908, the composer had a cancerous tumor removed from his throat; and throughout the writing of the Fourth Symphony, up until 1913, the spectre of the tumor recurring and possibly killing him was an ever-present worry in his mind. Nevertheless, like Sergei Rachmaninoff’s works, Sibelius’ works tend to reflect those emotions into some very stark and even modern, though traditionally proportioned, symphonic writing, as can be gleaned from the Fourth Symphony. The symphony was premiered in Helsinki by the Philharmonia Society with the composer conducting. Largely because of the popularity of three of his other symphonies (nos. 1, 5, and 7), the Fourth is a lesser known work, though it has received its fair share of performances and recordings over the decades, including George Szell’s championing of it in the mid-1960’s with his Cleveland Orchestra,
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/HERBERT BLOMSTEDT (London/Decca)
Included):
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 82
Sibelius: SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN A MINOR, OP. 63
Though many of his works reflected how much pride he had for his native country of Finland, there were times when Jean Sibelius had his moments of darkness as well; and as was the case with many a composer before him, some of that darkness and moodiness inevitably spilled out into his work. One such case in point was his Symphony No. 4, composed during 1910-11. Far more than any of the symphonies or tone poems that reflected the icy and wintry beauty of Finaldn, the Fourth Symphony, a work that lasts 35-40 minutes and is scored for a large (but not over-the-top) orchestra, including a glockenspiel, was seen by many critics as the composer’s foretelling of what was to happen to the world in a few short years (i.e., the onset of World War I). Also, three years earlier, in 1908, the composer had a cancerous tumor removed from his throat; and throughout the writing of the Fourth Symphony, up until 1913, the spectre of the tumor recurring and possibly killing him was an ever-present worry in his mind. Nevertheless, like Sergei Rachmaninoff’s works, Sibelius’ works tend to reflect those emotions into some very stark and even modern, though traditionally proportioned, symphonic writing, as can be gleaned from the Fourth Symphony. The symphony was premiered in Helsinki by the Philharmonia Society with the composer conducting. Largely because of the popularity of three of his other symphonies (nos. 1, 5, and 7), the Fourth is a lesser known work, though it has received its fair share of performances and recordings over the decades, including George Szell’s championing of it in the mid-1960’s with his Cleveland Orchestra,
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/HERBERT BLOMSTEDT (London/Decca)
Included):
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN E FLAT MAJOR, OP. 82