Nobody would put Sibelius' chamber music at the pinnacle of his output, and indeed it has often been criticized and is generally rarely played. It lacks the sweep of his symphonies and tone poems and the charm of his theater music. None of it has much of a Finnish flavor. Yet, he didn't toss it off, and violinist Fenella Humphreys and pianist Joseph Tong are convincing in their assertion here that his music for violin and piano is worth another look. There are two sets of pieces from the World War I era, separated by an ...
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Nobody would put Sibelius' chamber music at the pinnacle of his output, and indeed it has often been criticized and is generally rarely played. It lacks the sweep of his symphonies and tone poems and the charm of his theater music. None of it has much of a Finnish flavor. Yet, he didn't toss it off, and violinist Fenella Humphreys and pianist Joseph Tong are convincing in their assertion here that his music for violin and piano is worth another look. There are two sets of pieces from the World War I era, separated by an enthusiastic Andante cantabile from the composer's youth. These are elegant things, with hints of Baroque dances, that one might take for Saint-Saëns. The real news here, however, are three sets from late in Sibelius' career. Two of them, the Four Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 115, and Three Pieces, Op. 116, were the last things Sibelius wrote, with the exception of a short choral work. The annotation here claims that they offer a glimpse of what might have been in the composer's...
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