Sibelius

I have written about the American big bands, about Bobby Short and about Dorival Caymmi, the great Brazilian composer of songs of the sea. I also talked about George Gershwin and his opera “Porgy and Bess”. Maybe now it is time to talk about some classical music.

In fact, I grew up listening to classical music. My father loved operas and loved Beethoven. And he loved Enrico Caruso. And occasionally we would listen to Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, etc.

I did not inherit his appreciation for opera. It should be an adequate combination of music and theater, but most usually the theater part is poor. Most of the time good opera singers are poor theater actors. This is gradually changing, maybe influenced by the Broadway and London shows, who have demonstrated that there are good actors who can sing and dance. I saw an extraordinary performance of Carmen in Athens, at the Herodes Atticus open air theater (originally build on year 161), in which all of the performers, including José Carrera, besides being excellent singers, were also excellent actors. And also a performance of La Bohème in Vienna was memorable. I think that Puccini, in particular, not only was a great musician, but also had the knack for creating good theater. And, of course, there are many beautiful arias in so many operas.

But most of the time I listen to symphonies and concertos.

I am particularly addicted to the music of Jean Sibelius.

Jean Sibelius in 1890 - Wikimedia Commons

He was born in Hämeenlinna, a small town in Finland, known for its schools and academies, in 1865. 

His music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His tone poem Finlandia was a sort of underground hymn for the people striving for the country’s independence. In order to avoid Russian censorship, Finlandia had to be performed under alternate names at different musical concerts. One of these names was Happy Feelings at the Awakening of Finnish Spring. The poem starts with tempestuous music, symbolizing the struggles of the Finnish population; then comes a gentle melody, like a hymn, that sounds like a folk melody but was actually composed by Sibelius. 

I also like some of his other tone poems, as The Swan of Tuonela, Tapiola and En Saga. Valse Triste, to me, is the most beautiful waltz ever written.

Sibelius’ most  beautiful compositions, however, are his Violin Concerto in D minor and his seven Symphonies. The first two symphonies are intense and patriotic. Symphony no. 3 is what we call “minimal” and marks his turning point as a composer. After this his music became more abstract but, nevertheless, very beautiful. His music has an “inner structure,” orchestrated in such a way that everything superfluous has been has been discarded.

After finishing the tone poem Tapiola, in 1926, Sibelius no longer published his musical compositions.  He told some friends that “I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh, so it will be my last.” But it seems that he did begin to write a Symphony no. 8, of which only a few fragments could be found. It seems that sometime in the 1940s Sibelius burned a number of manuscripts. Nobody knows what exactly he did burn. But his wife said that he felt much better after this episode. That is the way with perfectionists.

Many years ago my wife and I were in Turku and visited the beautiful Sibelius Museum. On that same night, in one of the social events of the medical meeting, the President, Prof. Eero Aantaa, gave us a musical questionnaire. He would play small portions of different records and we had to mark the correct answers. I won the second prize, which was a recording of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.

In Helsinki there is a Sibelius Park, where you can see an abstract sculpture honoring the composer. It was made by Eila Hiltunen and she chose to depict not his figure, but his music. If you visit Helsinki, do not miss it. 

Jean Sibelius died in 1957 in Ainola, his home at the Lake Tuusula, in Järvenpää.

His Symphony no. 1 is my all-time favorite.