UNITED KINGDOM SIBELIUS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 76 United Kingdom Sibelius Society Newsletter - Issue 76 (January 2015) - C ontent S - Page Editorial ....................................................................................... 3 News and Views .......................................................................... 5 Original Sibelius. Festival Review by Edward Clark .................. 6 Sibelius and Bruckner by Peter Frankland .................................. 10 The Piano Music of Jean Sibelius by Rudi Eastwood .................. 16 Why do we like Sibelius? by Edward Clark ................................ 19 Arthur Butterworth by Edward Clark .......................................... 20 A memoir of Tauno Hannikainen by Arthur Butterworth ............ 25 2014 Proms – Review by Edward Clark ...................................... 27 Sibelius. Thoughts by Fenella Humphries ................................... 30 The Backman Trio. Concert and CD review by Edward Clark ... 32 Finlandia. Commentary by David Bunney ................................... 33 The modernity of Sibelius by Edward Clark ............................... 36 Sibelius and his Violin Concerto by Edward Clark ..................... 38 The United Kingdom Sibelius Society would like to thank its corporate members for their generous support: ............................................................................................... BB-Shipping (Greenwich) Ltd Transfennica (UK) Ltd Music Sales Ltd Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Breitkopf & Härtel - 2 - Editorial Welcome to 2015! It is as big a year for Sibelius as most of us will experience for the rest of our lives. I recall the Centenary Year, 1965, well. Sibelius’s reputation was, to quote the Sibelius scholar, Robert Layton, “close to its nadir” due to a vicious reaction by a section of critics and musicians against anything that resembled tradition in writing music. Today we can celebrate Sibelius for being a herald of a new tradition welcomed by most living composers, a tradition for renewal of symphonic form. Is there any greater, more complex, musical form than the symphony? However you don’t have to be a fan of the symphony to appreciate Sibelius’s enormous contribution to the writing of a broad range of music that has stood the test of time as much as that of any other composer of his era or beyond. Sadly we say farewell to the English composer, Arthur Butterworth MBE, who died at the same age as Sibelius late in 2014. In his music, Arthur stood tall against the many fashions of the day he encountered in his long life as a noted symphonist and, probably, the biggest admirer of Sibelius among his generation. This Newsletter publishes interesting articles by many Sibelius fans, which allows us all to be part of one big family that is truly global in its membership. We also announce plans for various performances supported or planned by the Society. It is nice to have something of value for no cost for this is what we offer in our two free concerts at Burgh House, Hampstead, North London in midsummer. Apply soon! - 3 - So enjoy 2015 however you want to celebrate the genius of Sibelius, a composer who provides joy for millions. Edward Clark Newsletter Editor - 4 - News and Views An almighty row has broken out between the Sibelius publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, over a dispute over the cancellation of Valse Triste which was promised by the esteemed Vienna Philharmonic at its iconic New Year’s Day Concert in Vienna but then withdrawn. The reason given was that B&H was asking for too much money from the orchestra for the film rights (synchronisation rights). Despite a further reduction offered by B&H the orchestra stuck to its guns and refused to play Valse Triste. It should be recalled that it was this orchestra that began rehearsals of the Fourth Symphony after the war only for the players to refuse to play it in concert. It took the charisma of Lorin Maazel, twenty years later, (and no doubt a sizable recording fee) for the reluctant Austrian orchestra to relent and perform what is still a highly regarded symphony cycle. To quote the B&H Press Relese dated 24 November 2014, “Jean Sibelius would have deserved a “front row seat” at the concert marking the beginning of the year in which his 150th birthday will be celebrated far and wide.” A very talented violinist has written an article about her love for Sibelius. Fenella Humphries is supported by the Society at her February concert in London where she typically plays an imaginative programme of works by and related to Sibelius. Her concert programme is enclosed with the newsletter. The Society is also supporting a rare concert given by Joe Tong devoted to the piano music. Details are enclosed on a concert leaflet. Please support Fenella and Joe if you are free to attend. - 5 - Original Sibelius Lahti Sibelius Festival 2014 (4th - 7th September) A review by Edward Clark Lahti Symphony Orchestra Conductor Okku Kamu Violinist Ilja Gringolts Pianist Folke Grasbeck Before I begin my thoughts on Original Sibelius may I mention the sound I heard at the very beginning of the festival at the now world famous Sibelius Hall in Lahti? My ears had been recently conditioned at various Proms concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In certain repertoire, say large scale choral works, this is a marvellous venue. But to experience the artistry and virtuosity of James Ehnes playing Walton’s wonderfully lyrical Violin Concerto being swallowed up and rendered almost inaudible by the cavernous acoustic was a soul destroying experience. Fast forward to Lahti with Ilja Gringolts playing the first version of the Sibelius Violin Concerto and I had entered a world of purity of sound where the proverbial pin could be heard to silently fall to the floor. Sibelius provides his soloist with prodigious demands in his music but even with a voracious orchestra in attendance Gringolts’s marvellous performance allowed every note to be heard, a feat not achieved in the only recording on the BIS label made in Lahti’s large church before the hall was opened twelve years ago. His tone from the beginning was beguiling and sensuous, his artistry totally at the service of the - 6 - composer in this wayward but enthralling work. The concept of the festival was to perform all the important first versions of works Sibelius was later to revise, in some cases almost immediately (The Yale version, Aallattoret, which became known as The Oceanides) in others many years hence (Lemminkäinen). As each concert progressed to the final work to be heard, the 1915 first version of the Fifth Symphony, I wondered if the conductor, Okku Kamu, and, perhaps, some of his players woke up at night in a cold sweat after rehearsing generally familiar works, but now in their first versions, put together in an often entirely different way; harmonies, structure, thematic organisation –causing disorientation and bewilderment. The stuff of nightmares indeed. Generally though the works heard were shortened and improved in revision, among them the Violin Concerto, En Saga, Lemminkäinen and In memoriam. Sibelius’s wife, Aino, preferred both first versions of the concerto and En Saga; both are more propulsive, more flamboyant and more romantically explicit. By cutting whole sections, or interludes, from these four works Sibelius tightened the structures and exerted more discipline, both musically and emotionally, on each work. Two curiosities were heard; the first version of the middle movement of the (as played here) entire Third Symphony, where the familiar opening (described to the author by Sir Colin Davis as like something crawling from out under a stone!) was originally a jagged, repetitive motive on the violas. Other changes are small but quite telling. This was the world premiere performance of the middle movement. The second curiosity was Rakastava, in its string arrangement but here heard in the first version soon to be modified somewhat into the magical work we now know. Again small changes were made (including the - 7 - keys in all three movements) but worth hearing for insights into Sibelius’s critical faculties. By far the most controversial performance was that of the 1915, first, version of the Fifth Symphony. There are two questions: how could Sibelius write this after the mastery of the Fourth Symphony and how could he revise it so successfully five years later into its definitive, third, version? After the tight compression of the Fourth Symphony, expressed in the darkest of moods, Sibelius emerged gradually into a different world with new choices to be made of more extravert material. (He referred to this subject in his dairy in April 1915 It is as if God the Father had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven’s floor and asked me to put them back as they were). His early attempts are often inept and gauche. There are passages that cause embarrassment in their overextension and seeming inconsequential result. To answer the second question perhaps only a true genius could revise the 1915 cauldron of creativity into the final version, described recently by the composer and writer, Peter Paul Nash, as “the supreme masterpiece of the 20th century”. David Matthews, the esteemed contemporary English symphonist and keen Sibelian, states that the first version should never be heard so detrimental it is to Sibelius’s reputation. He is probably right. The Sibelius family heirs have supressed performances for many years and any future ones must be rarities , of use to scholars and others interested in how musical genius can be applied to turning often second rate material into pure gold. How many nightmares were there, I wonder, among conductor and players having to set aside preconceived notions of familiar music? Folke Grasbeck, the finest living exponent of Sibelius’s piano music, - 8 - in his enthralling recital spoke about how difficult it is to even learn new harmonic/tonal transpositions that Sibelius made between the first and final versions of his piano pieces, not least the composer’s own piano arrangement of Valse Triste. But, after nightmares, dawn arrived for the players to awaken to their responsibilities in regard to projecting familiar themes in unfamiliar surroundings.