Jean Sibelius

Synopsis

The great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was born on this date in 1865.

In 1990, when the world was observing Sibelius’s 125th birthday, conductor Osmo Vänskä led the Lahti Symphony in the belated world-premiere performance of a previously unknown work by the composer. This was a Suite for Violin and Orchestra that Sibelius had probably completed in 1929, but never published or had performed.

Now, Sibelius was a very prolific composer up through his fifties, but during the last 30 years of his life before his death in 1957 wrote very little. He had completed his Seventh Symphony, his last, in 1924, and the world waited in vain for an Eighth. Perhaps it was due to depression, perhaps it was due to drink—or maybe, creatively speaking, Sibelius had just dried up. In any case, what works he did complete as a senior citizen were either revisions of much earlier pieces, or minor incidental works.

Which makes this genial little Suite, if composed fresh in 1929, rather interesting. It’s landscape music, evoking the Finnish countryside, but in a less bleak and abstract manner compared to his final large-scale works. It may not be top-drawer Sibelius, but even so, we’re grateful that Sibelius decided to stick his Suite for Violin in a bottom drawer—and not in the fireplace!

Music Played in Today's Program

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Suite for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 117 Dong-Suk Kang, vn; Lahti Symphony; Osmo Vanska BIS 1125

On This Day

Births

• 1731 - Baptism of Bohemian composer and pianist Frantisek Xaver Dussek, in Choteborky;

• 1865 - Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, in Tavastehus;

• 1882 - Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, in Fresnillo, Zacatecas;

• 1890 - Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, in Policka;

• 1919 - Polish-born Russian composer Moisei Vainberg (also Weinberg/Vaynberg, Moisey/Mieczyslaw), in Warsaw;

Deaths

• 1562 - Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, age. c. 72, in Venice;

• 1924 - German composer and pianist Xaver Scharwenka, age 74, in Berlin;

• 1980 - John Lennon (of the Beatles), age 40, is shot dead in New York City;

Premieres

• 1733 - Bach: Secular Cantata No. 214 ("Tönet ihr Pauken, erchallet Trompeten") at a public performance in the garden of Zimmermann's Coffee House in Leipzig, for the birthday of the Princess-Elector and Queen of Poland, Maria Josepha (the wife of August III); One year later, Bach recycled some of the music for this secular cantata into his sacred "Christmas Oratorio" (S.213-219);

• 1743 - Handel: “Dettingen Te Deum and Anthem” in London (Julian date: Nov. 27);

• 1813 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, in Vienna, the composer conducting; Also on the program was the orchestral version of "Wellington's Victory" (originally conceived for performance by a mechanical orchestra invented by Maelzel called the "panharmonicon";

• 1844 - Schumann: Piano Quartet, Op. 47, in Leipzig, at the Gewandhaus, with Clara Schumann (piano), Ferdinand David (viola), Niels W. Gade (viola), and Count Wielhorsky (cello); A private performance had also occured in Leipzig in 1842 (see Dec. 6);

• 1849 - Verdi: opera "Luisa Miller," in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo;

• 1879 - Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 1, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Dec. 20);

• 1915 - first version (of three) of Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, with the Helsinki Municipal Orchestra, with the composer conducting (on his 50th birthday); A second revision of this symphony was premiered by the same orchestral and conductor on Dec. 14, 1916, and a third and final version premiered in Helsinki under the composer's direction on Oct. 21, 1921;

• 1931 - Gershwin: musical show, "Of Thee I Sing," in Boston, at the Majestic Theater; This musical opened in New York on Dec. 26th that year, and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1932;

• 1943 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 24, in Moscow;

• 1992 - Michael Torke: “Monday and Tuesday,” for chamber ensemble, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, by the London Sinfonietta, Lothar Zagrosek conducting;

Others

• 1911 - At the Cort Theater in San Francisco, American composer and conductor Henry Hadley leads the first subscription concert of the San Francisco Symphony; The program included Wagner's Act I Prelude from "Die Meistersinger," Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony, the "Theme and Variations," from Haydn's "Emperor Quartet," and Liszt's tone-poem "Les Préludes."