Sibelius Symphony No.2 in D Symphony No.7 in C

SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO.2 IN D SYMPHONY NO.7 IN C PAAVO BERGLUND conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA JEAN SIBELIUS Symphony No.2 in D Symphony No.7 in C The London Philharmonic Orchestra can boast friend Axel Carpelan of his plans to write a a long association with Sibelius, stretching work based on The Divine Comedy of Dante. back to the 1930s when it recorded the Fourth Carpelan had raised the funds for him to travel Symphony, The Bard, Lemminkäinen’s Return south to compose a major work, free from and The Tempest music under Sir Thomas the distractions and obligations of his normal Beecham. With the Second Symphony (1901), environment. He remained for some months in Sibelius reached the peak of what one might, Italy, a country which he loved second only to for the sake of convenience, call his first period. Finland all his life. There he had also planned The symphony possesses a combination of a work on the theme of The Stone Guest; Italianate warmth and Nordic intensity that indeed, the theme that forms the main idea of has ensured a wide popular appeal. Some of the slow movement was composed with this its success was extra-musical in that, coming Don Juan scenario in mind, and the second immediately after Finlandia, the work struck theme bears the inscription ‘Christus’ in these a responsive patriotic nerve. Finland was sketches! He then toyed with the idea of a four- still a ‘Grand Duchy’ of Russia and increasing movement tone-poem to be called ‘Festivals’, Tsarist oppression had served to fuel Finnish while he was staying at Rapallo, but the bulk ambitions for national self-determination. of this material was wholly transformed and found its way into the Second Symphony on If the Second Symphony inhabits much the which he worked in earnest on his return to same spiritual world as the First, it views Finland. His Italian visit may account for the it through more subtle and refined lenses. sunnier, more relaxed atmosphere and the As in the First Symphony, it is the opening softer, warmer light, though it is only fair to movement that makes the most profound note that Tapiola, the coldest and bleakest of impression. Its very air of relaxation and his works, was written in the same country! effortlessness serves to mask its inner strength. Each motive seems to evolve None of his other symphonies enjoyed such naturally from its immediate predecessor. The immediate success as the Second. All four genesis of the Second Symphony shows that of the performances given in March 1902 the pull of the tone-poem was still powerful. were sold out, and performances abroad In the summer of 1901, Sibelius wrote to his were not slow to follow: Hans Richter introduced it to British audiences with the Hallé Orchestra in 1905, and Busoni invited Sibelius himself to conduct it in Berlin at one of his New Music concerts the same year. Of all the seven symphonies it still remains the most frequently played and recorded. In the Second Symphony (to quote Erik Tawaststjerna) Sibelius is ‘no longer content to pour new material into predetermined moulds but like the Viennese masters themselves thinks in creative terms of the very form itself’. Three of the four movements fall into a sonata form mould but such is the subtlety and originality of the first that few commentators seem to agree where its second subject actually begins! The second movement is a kind of classical Adagio-sonata form without a development section as such. The Scherzo is more extended than the one in the First Symphony, and inspired by the example of Beethoven’s Seventh, Sibelius repeats the trio section but rather than finishing the movement with a repeat of the section, he composes a link into the finale, also a broad sonata design. Incidentally, the second idea of the latter – the lamenting woodwind theme – far from being a response to the fate of Finland at this time, as some of Music, College London Royal commentators suggested, was prompted the process of thematic metamorphosis by the death of his sister-in-law, Elli works at such a level of sophistication that Järnefelt, who had just taken her own life. the listener is barely aware of it. As Constant Lambert says of Tapiola (though it applies The Seventh Symphony (1924) can be seen as equally to the Symphony) in his book, Music the culmination of Sibelius’ life-time search Ho! – ‘Sibelius like a Newton or an Einstein, for organic unity. It illustrates the truth of the revealed the electrifying possibilities that assertion that Sibelius never approached the are latent in the apparently commonplace. symphonic problem in the same way. It is a There is nothing in music which has really one-movement work but unified in a way that lost its meaning, no device of rhythm, no the Fourth Symphony of Schumann attempted harmonic combination which the composer of but never quite achieved. Although there are vision cannot re-animate.’ Vaughan Williams passages that have the character of a Scherzo made much the same point when he said or an Adagio section, it is impossible to define that Sibelius could even make the chord of where one section ends and another begins, C major sound completely his own – as he so complete is Sibelius’ mastery of the art of does at the triumphant end of this work. transition and his control of simultaneous tempi. It is epic in character and can be Robert Layton, 2005 viewed as the climax of his life-work in that PAAVO BERGLUND Born in 1929, Paavo Berglund began his Berglund’s discography includes works by conducting career in 1949, and has had a Shostakovich, Smetana and Dvorvák, and his long association with the orchestras of his Nielsen symphony cycle won the French native Finland, including periods as Principal Diapason d’Or award. It is for his recordings of Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony the symphonies of Sibelius, however, for which Orchestra (1962-71) and the Helsinki he is possibly best known. Berglund conducted Philharmonic Orchestra (1975-79). In 1972 the world première recording of Sibelius’ he took over at the helm of the Bournemouth Kullervo Symphony, and has recorded the Symphony Orchestra, and has since worked complete symphony cycle no less than three closely with most of the major European times. He is known for his careful attention orchestras, including the Berlin, Stockholm, to matters of balance and clarity, and for his Oslo and London Philharmonic Orchestras, conscientious rehearsing. His painstaking Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de work on the printing errors he found in the France and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. score of the Seventh Symphony resulted in In North America he has conducted, among the publication of a revised edition, and he others, the San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland, has no hesitation in making changes to the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles orchestration of certain passages in order that Philharmonic Orchestras. every detail is brought out. LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA The London Philharmonic Orchestra has long Principal Guest Conductor in March 2003. established a high reputation for its versatility and artistic excellence. These are evident The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been from its performances in the concert hall resident symphony orchestra at the Royal and opera house, its many award-winning Festival Hall since 1992 and there it presents recordings, its trail-blazing international its main series of concerts between September tours and its pioneering education work. Kurt and May each year. In summer, the Orchestra Masur has been the Orchestra’s Principal moves to Sussex where it has been the resident Conductor since September 2000, extending symphony orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival the line of distinguished conductors who have Opera for over 40 years. The Orchestra also held positions with the Orchestra since its performs at venues around the UK and has foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham. made numerous tours to America, Europe and These have included Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Japan, and visited India, Hong Kong, China, Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus South Korea, Australia and South Africa. Tennstedt and Franz Welser-Möst. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Richard Haughton Richard JEAN SIBELIUS Symphonie Nr.2 Symphonie Nr.7 Das London Philharmonic Orchestra kann sich verbirgt sich seine innere Kraft. Ein jedes einer langen Verbindung zu Sibelius rühmen. Motiv scheint ganz natürlich aus dem Diese reicht zurück bis in die Dreissiger jeweiligen Vorgängermotiv zu erwachsen. Jahre, als das Orchester unter Sir Thomas Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Zweiten Beecham die Vierte Symphonie, Der Barde, Symphonie belegt, dass die Anziehungskraft Lemminkäinen zieht heimwärts und Der Sturm der Tondichtung noch immer wirksam war. aufnahm. Mit der Zweiten Symphonie (1901) Im Sommer 1901 berichtete Sibelius seinem erreichte Sibelius den Gipfel dessen, was Freund Axel Carpelan von seinen Plänen, ein man um der Bequemlichkeit willen als seine auf Dantes Göttlicher Komödie basierendes erste Schaffensperiode bezeichnen könnte. Werk zu schreiben. Carpelan hatte Mittel Dank der Kombination von italienischer zusammengebracht, die es seinem Freunde Wärme mit nordischer Intensität wurde die ermöglichten, in den Süden zu reisen, um dort Symphonie sehr populär, wobei ihr Erfolg ein grosses Werk zu komponieren, ohne die durchaus auch aussermusikalische Gründe Ablenkungen und Verpflichtungen des Alltags. hatte, denn sie entstand direkt nach Finlandia Sibelius blieb für einige Monate in Italien, und traf einen patriotischen Nerv: Finnland dem Land, das er - nach Finnland - sein Leben hatte noch immer den Status eines russischen lang am meisten liebte. Dort dachte er auch „Grossherzogtums“, und zunehmende an eine Komposition über das Thema des Unterdrückungsmassnahmen von seiten des Steinernen Gastes, und in der Tat hatte Sibelius zaristischen Regimes befeuerten die finnischen bei der Niederschrift des Hauptthemas des Ambitionen auf nationale Selbstbestimmung.

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