Sibelius The Complete Symphonies (1995)

An Introduction To Sibelius

The seven symphonies of Jean Sibelius (1865 -- 1957) are among the most impressive musical achievements of the Twentieth Century. His music fell into obscurity briefly at around the time of his death but fortunately has been restored to its rightful place. Few Twentieth Century composers have been so influential.

Colin Davis is a master of Sibelius' music, and his first cycle of the symphonies with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, available on two "duo" CD sets on Phillips, is available at a budget price. Sibelius's symphonies reward a "completist" approach. There are only seven, and the listener can follow the set in order and learn how Sibelius developed from a composer heavily influenced by late romanticism, including Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, and Wagner, to a modernist composer with a difficult, complex voice. For those wanting a guide, I recommend Michael Steinberg's book "The Symphony" (1995). Steinberg obviously loves Sibelius, and he discusses each of his symphonies in a clear, nontechnical way.

This CD includes Sibelius' first, second, fourth, and fifth symphonies which are probably his best-known and most accessible. The four-movement symphony no 1 in E minor opus 39 dates from 1899 when the composer was in his early 30s. Listen to the long, melancholy clarinet solo which opens this symphony. The second movement is lyrical and romantic, uncharacteristic of the later Sibelius, with a lush horn solo. The third movement is a brusque scherzo with a slow fragmented trio which points to Sibelius' later style. The finale builds to a great climax and then the music seems to come apart. It fades away at the end.

The symphony no 2 in D major, opus 43 is a triumphant, victory work in four movements Listen to the soft, repeated chords with which the work begins. They form the basis for the entire symphony as Sibelius creates ambiguities -- shifting from using his opening material as a harmonic backdrop to using it as the theme. The music develops from fragmentary themes as Sibelius embroiders them into a large-scale integrated work. The second movement features horns, bassoons, and rushing strings and includes marked changes in tempo and mood. In the third movement, listen to the nine repeated notes on the oboe with which the trio begins. The famous finale is based upon two stirring themes, the second of which eventually predominates and forms the basis for the inspiring, triumphant close. This is a deservedly loved symphony in the heroic mode.

Sibelius' symphony no 4, opus 63 dates from 1911 and is one of the composer's most difficult and enigmatic scores. It is Sibelius at his most personal, dark, alone, and somber. In this work, Sibelius experiements with tonality. He makes great use of the whole-tone scale, as did Debussy and of an attendant interval consisting of three whole steps called the tritone. This gives the music an unstable, questioning character. Steinberg writes: "aloneness, a sense of the contrast between human and superhuman scale, the impact of enormously concentrated experience -- these are perhaps the images that, unbidden, lodged in Sibelius's mind as he conceived and began to fix the musical gestures of his unsettling masterwork." The symphony is predominantly slow and somber and challenging. Listen to the sad song of the third movement and to the bells (chimes) in the finale of this work. Sibelius' fourth symphony, together with his sixth and seventh symphonies on the other part of this compiliation, are each highly modernistic, unique compositions that grow with time.

The final work on this compilation if the symphony no. 5 in E-flat major, opus 82. Sibelius revised this symphony extensively, and the final version dates from 1919. The key of e-flat major often is used for heroic, broad-scaled music (think of Beethoven's Eroica symphony and Emperor concerto) and, with his own developing sense of restraint and ambiguity, Sibelius so uses it here. The work is generally described as in three movements (some listeners hear the first movement as two movements, joined together without a pause) which are closely integrated. The long first movement builds and builds from basically short, fragmentary material, includes a quick scherzo, which some people consider as the second movement. In any event, the material is tied together and integrated magesterially, concluding the opening section of the symphony. The second movement is a theme and variations in which a woodwind chorale sings througout as the backdrop to a short figure in the strings. The third movement takes materials presented as background in the second movement and makes it the basis for a rolling and repeated chorus in the french horns presented early in the finale. The finale of Sibelius' fifth develops to a stunning climax punctuated by the famous six large and irregularly spaced chords with which it concludes. I find this symphony similar to Sibelius' second, but in a more complex, original, and modernistic voice.

I think Sibelius has entered that relatively small class of composers that every lover of music should get to know. There is no better way of hearing Sibelius than in this CD and its companion CD by Colin Davis.

Robin Friedman