Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius)

His Second Symphony in D major, Op 43 Jean Sibelius began in winter 1900 in Rapallo and completed it in 1902 in Finland. The premiere took place on 8 March 1902, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the composer. After this first performance took Sibelius, as with his first symphony, some changes, and this revised version was first performed on 10 November 1903 in Stockholm, led by Armas Järnefelt. The symphony has an average performance time of 45 minutes.

The first recording session was - carried out in May 1930 by the London Symphony Orchestra under Robert Kajanus - as with the first symphony.

In 2009, the symphony ended up at the "ABC Classic 100 Symphony Countdown" on the ninth.

Sets

The symphony has four movements in traditional patterns, but which passes over the third set without break directly into the fourth.

The plant grows organically out of an ascending three-note motif that is heard at the beginning and appears in countless transformations through the entire symphony and also the dramatic finale defined thematically.

The Reclam concert leaders said in 1965: "The work shows all the benefits of his style: power, harsh coloring, serious pathos, to nature ... As much proves Sibelius's ability to make out small items in a gradual growth of big exciting pictures. "

Barry Millington wrote in 1991 in the booklet to the recording of the complete symphonies with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle 1984-88:

"The fact that Sibelius ' Second Symphony contemplative, warmer than the joyless first to be explained at least in part from his stay in Italy in 1901., Where he employed a work on the Don Juan legend, which although did not materialize, but eventually the material for created the main theme of the slow movement of the Second Symphony. As mentioned in the first movement of the First, the organic construction of the plant is quite amazing here; however, Sibelius, whose compositional technique ever developed, soar here to even higher spheres could. "

Reception

This has become extremely popular symphony has always been connected with its grand finale in Finland with the country's fight for independence from Russia. At times, it was called the "Symphony of Independence ", especially at that time when the then Russian-occupied Finland, the Finnish language and Finnish culture were suppressed. Sibelius's stance on the issue has been discussed often controversial. Some argue that Sibelius would never have had such patriotic ambitions in the composition and was only later brought related to it. Others claim he had quite that specific subject of the " Finnish independence " in the head.

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