Subscription Concerts 2024-2025Program B
No. 2019 Subscription (Program B)

The timeless pride of Finland, Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) left his double mark on music history, as an important symphonist following the pan-European tradition and as the establisher of the Finnish national identity in music. An early successful example of the latter is Four Legends from the Kalevala (also known as Lemminkäinen Suite after the eponymous hero), a set of four symphonic poems premiered in 1896. The Kalevala is Finland’s mythological epic which led a national awakening through the second half of the nineteenth century and thus paved the way for the country’s independence from Russian rule in 1917.
The Swan of Tuonela (completed in 1895, revised in 1897 & 1900) is the most popular of the cycle. Tuonela is, according to the first edition of the score, “the Hades of Finnish mythology” surrounded by “a large river of black water” on which “the swan of Tuonela glides majestically and sings.” Sibelius entrusted the role of this singing swan to the English horn: indeed, its pear-shaped bell, its long main body and its bocal (curved thin tube that the reed is attached to) remind us of a swan, whilst its plaintive tone fits the work’s mysterious, mournful setting well. Depicting the scene with a vivid imagination, Sibelius, an eminent violinist as well, displays great ability as an ingenious orchestrator: especially, his meticulous treatment of the strings – divided into thirteen parts at the beginning – produces a remarkable effect throughout the work.

[Kumiko Nishi]

The same age as Sibelius, Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) is certainly one of the most essential Danish and even Nordic composers. However, he didn’t gain genuine international fame in his lifetime despite his catalogue distinguished both in quality and in quantity, including six unconventional, inventive, beautiful symphonies (premiered on his native soil between 1894 and 1925). He studied composition in Copenhagen under Gade (1817–1890) who also trained Grieg (1843–1907). While composing, Nielsen started his career as an orchestral violinist and later served as a conductor with the leading orchestras in the capital.
The Clarinet Concerto (1928) dates from Nielsen’s final years. His source of inspiration was the Copenhagen Wind Quintet who gave the premiere of his Quintet in 1922: impressed by the members, Nielsen wrote the Flute Concerto (1927) for its flutist and then another one for its clarinetist Aage Oxenvad who brilliantly premiered this technically demanding concerto in 1928. Regrettably, the next concerto was never completed as the composer passed away three years later. His compositional pace had already started to slow down in the early 1920s due to his failing health.
The Clarinet Concerto is written for a small-sized orchestra which unusually requires only a snare drum (instead of timpani) as percussion. This single-movement piece consists of four parts, having the slow Adagio and the scherzo-like ones in the middle. The final spirited part in march rhythm suddenly drops its speed towards the end to close the concerto in unexpected quietness: unpredictability is Nielsen’s specialty.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Born to a musical family in Stockholm, Franz Adolf Berwald (1796–1868) is of the same generation as Rossini (1792–1868) and Schubert (1797–1828). The Swedish composer is thought to have started violin lessons at five with his father who was the Court Orchestra’s violinist. Treading in his father’s footsteps, the son joined the orchestra as a violinist in 1812. Berwald’s oldest existing compositions date from mid-1810s: he has since remained underrated as a composer particularly at home until 1867 – a year before his death at age 71 – when the Stockholm Conservatory appointed him professor of composition. For his living, he ran an orthopedic institute in Berlin and a glass factory in north Sweden, both with fair success.
Encouraged by the praise he got in 1842 for his symphonic poems in Vienna, Berwald wrote four symphonies in succession and gave them the French titles: No. 1 sérieuse (Serious) in G minor (1842), No. 2 capricieuse (Capricious) in D major (1842), No. 3 singulière (Singular/Unusual) in C major (1845) and No. 4 naïve (1845). Unfortunately, only No. 1 was heard publicly during his lifetime (incidentally, No. 2 was premiered in 1914 under the baton of Sibelius’ brother-in-law Armas Järnefelt). As for No. 4 – contemporary with Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 (1845–46) – , its premiere planned for 1848 in Paris was canceled due to the February Revolution. It was eventually first performed in 1878, ten years after Berwald’s death.
All the four movements of the Symphony naïve are in major keys. The first sonata movement begins with a brief repeated-note fanfare immediately before the cellos throw a grand arc of the first theme. In contrast, the second theme hops around. The middle movements – the serene D-major Adagio and the carefree B-flat-major Scherzo in A–B–A form – are performed seamlessly without pause. The vivacious, playful finale returns to the main key (E-flat major). Its opening repeated-note call is reminiscent of the first movement’s fanfare. This repeated-note element will be the driving force behind the surprise conclusion of this unique symphony.

[Kumiko Nishi]