If I Could Choose Only One Work By...SIBELIUS
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2023
- It Would Have To Be...Symphony No. 5 and Pohjola's Daughter
New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (cond.) Sony
The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures - Hudba
I love every Sibelius symphony, but the 4th has the most personal significance for me, so much so that I avoid overplaying it and only listen to it when the moment seems perfect.
I feel exactly the same way. It's my single Sibelius choice if I could only have one from here on out. Of course, it's short enough for an album pick with the 5th or anything else.
@@bbailey7818 I had the pleasure of attending the sequential performance of all seven of the symphonies conducted by Thomas Dausgaard with the Toronto Symphony. After a fine performance of the Fifth, at the greet-and-meet, I told Dausgard that the Fourth would always remain my favourite... and he nodded and said "mine too". For most audiences, the Fourth is austere and grim, and its ending is confusing. It never achieved the popularity of the Fifth or the Second. But it seemed completely comprehensible to me, even when I first heard it as a teenager. Maybe I was just a weird kid.
Understand completely the choice of the Fifth and Pohjolas Daughter, and those particular performances. However, the Fourth in of itself for me , encapsulates Sibelius' unique spareness and economy of idea (striping away anything unnecessary) in it's purest most magnificent form. The evocation of emotional desolation as devastating and profound as anything in Mahler at his darkest (that strange plaintiff oboe cry and the strings playing in lowest registers at the end of the symphony, just unforgettably grim) and all within around 40 minutes (proving less is often more).
@@curseofmillhaven1057 I agree, and I also note that few people reading this will "get" the particular meaning of your handle "Curse of Millhaven." I do, however.
It's for me the most unusual Sibelius symphony in terms of idiom. I hear it again only in The Bard. For this reason (and for its unusual form), it interests me most of the symphonies.
Hello Dave!
Thank you very much for including Mr Sibelius in this series. 🇫🇮🙏
Now I hope that a Swedish composer soon will turn up.🇸🇪😀
Best wishes Fred from Kristianstad.
Excellent choice. The Fifth Symphony was my introduction to the music of Sibelius.
allo mr huwitz,good return,take care of you,...sibelius......i love anything what he do....! if i chose only one work of him....'the symphonic poem 'the wood nymph''op 15'' i love this work
This post reminded me of a piece I learned of in school a long time ago. It's a late, short organ work by Sibelius, almost his last published work. It's Surusoitto, Opus 111b. As I recall its was funeral procession music for a friend. He had promised to write such music and was fulfilling the promise. Very beautiful. Ideal for the purpose. Hans-Ola Ericsson does a good version
Yes, he had been asked for a piece for a funeral in a few days. He demured. Then after a day or two he offered Surusoitto which caused some scholars to reckon it had come from the 8th symphony. It does feel latent with symphonic intent. It may well have.
For the same reasons you mention, the Lemmimkäinen Suite could have been chosen: symphony and tone poems at the same time.
But though I understand (and agree) your point with the Bernstein CD, my personal choice for Sibelius would be Tapiola. And just for the same reasons. I think Tapiola has a symphonic structure but it is a tone poem. And the miracle (for me) is that Sibelius builds the construction only with an unique theme. So for me Tapiola is just the Sibelius paradigm.
Good point. I was also feeling symphony 7 as a possibility.
@@fulltongrace7899 , I also thought in It because it's somehow the culmination of his style.
Agreed.
Such a magnificent symphony! The way he builds melody from previously-used material always intrigues me.
Brilliant analysis. You have expressed in 8 minutes and 18 seconds what i have been fumbling to define over 30 years. Thank you.🙏
The 5th is excellent. Great explanation. Adante Festivo brought me to Sibelius and I have been a fan ever since.
I'm happy that thanks to this video I learned something new about the approach to form of one of my favourite composers. For me this is even more valuable than the actual choice of works. So thanks Dave for the ever enlightening talks you keep putting out. For me as a music lover this is a great source of both knowledge and inspiration!
Been waiting for this one. Great choice(s).
For a single disc, yes - especially for "Pohjola's Daughter". But given that I like the 6th and 7th symphonies more, I'm going to go with my personal favorite: #6. Then again, #7 is more popular, and I could easily live with just that.
Thank you so much!
A brilliant llecture!
Keep up the steam Dave!
#5 always my fave. Discovered him thru this one + never get enough.
I've been waiting for this one! This is a strong choice.
Welcome back, Dave. I’m enjoying your Sibelius book and I love what you have to say here.
Thank you.
An excellent choice! Especially because - at least for my money - this is the best recording of Sibelius 5th ever.
Perfect choice! I own this album on vinyl record, plus I also own these recordings on CDs.
Four Legends from the Kalevala. (a.k.a. Lemminkainen suite.)
Pohjola's Daughter is a short, intense masterpiece. Karelia suite! Rakastava (The Lover) is a seldom heard gem for strings plus triangle.
I'm a bit burned out on the Second and Fifth (ditto the violin concerto) but would like to hear more of the Sixth.
Dave, glad you’re feeling better. I’ve been wondering why you haven’t recommended more albums for the big C. This approach seems the more sure fire way to find the most representative output of a composer. In fact, I would think that it should be the norm.
I saw his violin concerto two days ago by Lisa Batiashvili and the Munich Philharmonic ❤❤
I would choose Symphony No. 5, too, the first I heard. When I started to listen to classical music, I read terrible critics about Sibelius. Some critics said he would be a third class composer. One day a bought a DG CD with Simphony No. 5, Valse Triste, Finlandia, and Tapiola, played by Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karajan, and I found the music very beautiful. Sibelius was indeed a very fine sinfonist.
Pohlja's Daughter is extraordinary❤😅!
I heard the 5th Symphony in London at the Albert Hall when I was about 13 and it knocked me for six. Have loved it ever since.
If you remember, may I ask which conductor and orchestra? I was at a live performance with Barbirolli and The Halle in the 60s, not sure if it was a Proms Concert, but it was at Royal Albert Hall. It was one of the greatest live performances I've ever experienced.
@@maximisaev6974 it probably was the same one! As I was about 13 at the time and actually more interested in rock and roll (or indeed any music that was guaranteed to annoy my parents) I didn't pay any attention to conductors or orchestras, unfortunately. But I still listened to music of all kinds, even stuff my parents liked, and Sibelius's 5th sent me into the seventh heaven.
@@ho2201 I've had the Testament CD for a few years now. The Fifth was from a live concert at Royal Albert on 9 August, 1968. It being in August, it had to have been a Proms Concert. If this is the same one you remember, small world, isn't it? :)
@@maximisaev6974 yes, well, small world indeed. Nice to meet you again after such a long time!!
Hope you're feeling better, Dave. It makes, now that we know Cancrizans will accept "albums" to choose a disc that contains both a symphony and a symphonic poem. And when it comes to No. 5 and "Pojhola's Daughter" both are representative of the composer at his best, to say nothing of Bernstein's renditions which are benchmarks. I choose a single work--No. 7--before I knew compilations were acceptable, and I might still favor the Seventh over the Fifth as representing the whole of Sibelius's modus operandi in microcosm. And there must a single disc that couples the Seventh with Tapiola, which would be my choice for a representative symphonic poem. However, when it comes to Sibelius's mature compositions, almost any one would suffice in either category. He's that great.
As always, Dave's remarks on Sibelius are pure illumination. And playing the album card is especially welcome in this case: the best pairing of both genres (without needing either work to be best-in-genre or best-overall). Should have seen it coming.
Should have thought of it. Was my first CD of Sibelius, 35 years back, both renditions are unforgettable and the interpretation of Pohjola's Daughter is spectacular.
@@danielo.masson353 It is indeed one of the greatest recordings of both works. I think performance played a role in this case., unusual for the series.
@@danielo.masson353 A great recording of both works, agreed.
Love the Sibelius 5th but like the 2nd even better with the awesome final movement that takes you scaling up mountain peaks (maybe not in Finland). I find the Ormandy RCA the best for this and prefer his 5th and Pohjola's Daughter (in the same RCA Box) to Bernstein's..
Another hugely difficult choice because of the range and variety of Sibelius' work. Two masterpieces paired. I would maybe opt for the Seventh and Tapiola as a pairing as they are unique pieces (especially the 7th) and maybe represent the culmination of both his symphonies and symphonic poems, but there's little to choose between them.
The 7th. Since it is short, how about a coupling of the 7th and Tapiola. BTW Karajan's 7th with Berlin is excellent, its one of his few symphonic recordings I like.
What a superb choice! The fifth had to be there of course but you've made me listen to Pohjola's Daughter again which is a really astoundingly original work -- dramatic, orchestral ecstasy but also deep and brooding like only Sibelius could be. Excuse my ignorance but I didn't get the references to Kankresants. Who? What is k..........?
Check out the first video in this series and all is explained (and a zillion times thereafter).
@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks, Dave. I will.
Welcome back Maestro Hurwitz - we have waited impatiently on your Resurrection.
And yes Bernstein's "Pohjolan tytär" is really up there!! (please don't pronounce it "tuttar" if you should happen to talk to a Swede!).
I wouldn't worry. I pronounce it "Daughter."
Now I will think of that tone poem as "Pohjolas dotters tuttar."
🤣 I can't wait to see the face of the Swede whom you'll tell that if you should talk about Sibelius @@grafplaten😆
1. Could part of your choice be because in the first movement of his 5th Symphony Sibelius provided Leonard Bernstein with the four-note ascending theme on the words 'New York, New York'?
2. Since Sibelius spent some time in NYC at the beginning of the 20th century, I have always wondered whether he had heard the then popular song Casey Would Waltz With A Strawberry Blond (And The Band Played On) and subconsciously taken its opening fragment as the inspiration for his 'swan theme' in the third movement of his Fifth Symphony.
3. Your choice of the Bernstein recording reflects the great love the NY Philharmonic had for Sibelius, who at one time considered his music their favorite to perform. The majority vote numbers came from the strings who recognized in Sibelius someone whose first great desire was to become a violin virtuoso but upon failing in this task, resigned himself to composing great music in various forms that would reveal a particular knowledge of and affinity for stringed instruments.
I would pick #5 all day long.
It actually keeps my faith in the human race that a human can make music like that.
I’d send it to aliens & they would think we are a decent species.
After the thrilling coda to the first movement ( especially in the early Bernstein recording you're discussing here- wow- no one has ever come close to this performance- thanks for the introduction to it, Dave!)), the 'sledgehammer chords', as you describe them, are so disappointing and thin- and, as its due to their orchestration, no conductor can do anything about them or with them. They SHOULD sound like sledgehammer blows! The other thing about them is their wide spacing, in the temporal sense. Apart from the final cadence, in which the V-1 chords are three beats apart, I have never ever heard a conductor dare to play the preceding four chords as written ie each one being the first beat in 6/4 time. In every performance I've ever heard, the conductor closes those cavernous gaps by at least a beat, if not two. It should be: Wham! 2- 3- 4- 5 -6 Wham! 2 -3 -4- 5- 6 etc. Many, if not most conductors do the same with the glorious coda of the finale of Mahler 3, closing up what should be full bars of timpani rolls, so that they're more like three beats instead of four ( ie 9 bars and 7 bars before the final chord) and two full bars ( ie 4 and 5 bars before the final chord). Not to mention the deeply moving coda of the fifth movement of Shostakovich 8- one of the great perorations in all music. It seems, once again, that conductors don't trust the composer; closing the rests between the little pizzicato viola figure: C, D, C. It drives me crazy!
I'd choose Kullervo, but then again I don't really "get" Sibelius. I like the major scores, but I miss something essential.
Did anyone discuss Bruch already? The choice for his piece MUST be between the Scottish fantasy or the 1st violin concerto. I feel like the scottish fantasy may be his best-written work, the most technical and disputably hard to play. But to me, Bruch means "violin concerto", its just so iconic, full of so many good tunes, never boring. The only problem with it is it can be very short, especially if the soloist plays it fast; but it still stands to me as one of the best romantic concertos, and it only sounds like Bruch
Excellent! Even better would be if there was the same coupling with Colin Davis/BSO.
Glad to see you’re back “on track,” Dave! In a way you’re our generation’s Donald Francis Tovey.