Sibelius: Piano Music, Vol. 4

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Cat No: 8555363

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Release Date: 04 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313536320

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SIBELIUS

Description
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)Piano Music Volume 4Lyric Pieces, Op. 74 Five Pieces, Op. 75 ThirteenPieces, Op. 76 Five Pieces, Op. 85 Six Pieces, Op. 94The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was born in 1865, the sonof a doctor, in a small town in the south of Finland. The language and cultureof his family, as with others of their class and background at the time, wasSwedish. It was at school that Sibelius was to learn Finnish and acquire hisfirst real interest in the early legends of his own country. In this society,linguistically, socially and historically divided, Sibelius was deeplyinfluenced by his association with the family of the Finnish nationalistGeneral Jarnefelt, whose daughter Aino became his wife. Nevertheless Swedishremained his mother tongue, in which he expressed himself with greater fluencythan in Finnish.The musical abilities of Sibelius were soon realised,although he had entered university in Helsinki as a law student. His firstambition had been to be a violinist, but his abilities here were far outweighedby his gifts as a composer, developed first by study in Helsinki, then inBerlin and finally with Goldmark and with Robert Fuchs in Vienna.In Finland once more, Sibelius won almost immediate successin 1892 with a symphonic poem, Kullervo, based on an episode from the Finnishepic, the Kalevala. There followed compositions of particular national appealthat further enhanced his reputation in Helsinki, including the incidentalmusic to the patriotic pageant Karelia, En Saga and the Lemminkainen Suite.During this period Sibelius supported himself and his wife by teaching, as wellas by composition and the performance of his works, but it proved difficult forhim to earn enough, given, as he was, to bouts of extravagance, continuing thepractice of his days as a student. As consolation for his disappointment whenhis appointment as professor in Helsinki was rejected, Sibelius was awarded in1897 a government stipend for ten years, later changed into a pension for life.The sum involved was never enough to meet his inherited gift for improvidenceand his seeming dependence on alcohol.Sibelius continued his active career as a composer until1926, his fame increasing at home and abroad. The successful First Symphony of1898 was followed by the still more successful Finlandia. The acclaimed Second Symphony, in 1902,was followed by the Violin Concerto, a Third Symphony and, after an illnessthat put an end for the moment to any indulgence in alcohol and tobacco, aFourth, with travel to the major musical centres of Europe and internationalhonour. The Fifth Symphony was written during the war, after which Sibeliuswrote only four more works of any substance, the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies,incidental music for Shakespeare's The Tempest and, in 1926, the symphonic poemTapiola. An Eighth Symphony was completed in 1929, but destroyed. The rest wassilence. For the last 25 years of his life he wrote nothing until his death in1957 at the age of 91.In commo
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