Spring Song (in Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
| Spring Song | |
|---|---|
| Tone poem by Jean Sibelius | |
 The composer (c. 1895) | |
| Native name | Vårsång |
| Opus | 16 |
| Composed | 1894, rev. 1895 |
| Publisher | Fazer & Westerlund (1903)[1][a] |
| Duration | 8 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)[3] |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 21 June 1894[4] |
| Location | Vaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Conductor | Jean Sibelius |
| Performers | Orchestra of the Song Festival |
History
editThe piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the Society for Popular Education (Kansanvalistusseura). Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.[5]
Structure
editThe work is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glocken, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.[6] Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.
The tempo marking is: Tempo moderato e sostenuto. The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of bells at the end of the song.[7]
Discography
editThe sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:
Notes, references, and sources
edit- Notes
- ^ On 20 July 1905, the Helsinki-based music publisher Fazer & Westerlund (Helsingfors Nya Musikhandel) sold its Sibelius holdings (the publishing rights and printing plates) to the German firm of Breitkopf & Härtel.[2]
- ^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
- ^ P. Berglund–EMI Classics (5 69773 2) 1997
- ^ C. Groves–EMI Classics (5 85532 2) 2003
- ^ A. Gibson–Chandos (CHAN 8395/6) 1985
- ^ N. Järvi–BIS (CD–384) 1988
- ^ V. Sinaisky–Brilliant Classics (BC9212) 2010
- ^ Neeme. Järvi–DG (00028947755227) yyyy
- ^ O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1125) 2000
- ^ S. Sato–Finlandia (0927–49598–2) 2003
- ^ O. Vänskä–BIS (SACD–1645) 2009
- ^ L. Segerstam–Ondine (ODE 1112–2) 2007
- ^ E. Gardner–Chandos (CHSA 5217) 2021
- ^ S. Oramo–Chandos (CHAN 20136) 2019
- References
- ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 58.
- ^ Dahlström 2003, p. xxiv.
- ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 57.
- ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 28.
- ^ Tawaststjerna 2008, p. 142.
- ^ Score, Sibelius: Vårsång (Frühlingslied), Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig, 1903
- ^ Barnett 2007.
- Sources
- Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11159-0.
- Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
- Tawaststjerna, Erik (2008) [1965/1967; trans. 1976]. Sibelius: Volume I, 1865–1905. Translated by Layton, Robert. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-24772-1.
External links
edit- Spring Song (Vårsång), Op. 16: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Johnston, Blair. Spring Song at AllMusic
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