Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Birth : 1865-12-08, Hämeenlinna, Finland

Death : 1957-09-20

History

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as his country's greatest composer and, through his music, is often credited with having helped Finland to develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in his home country and internationally. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). Other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, over a hundred songs for voice and piano, incidental music for numerous plays, the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower), chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926) and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last thirty years, a stunning and perplexing decline commonly referred to as "The Silence of Järvenpää", the location of his home. Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music.

Profile

Jean Sibelius

Movies

Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Alice Sara Ott
Music
The London Telegraph described pianist Alice Sarah Ott as the “hottest new talent in classical music”. She now makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker performing Ravel’s vibrant, jazz-influenced Piano Concerto in G major. Another artist making his debut is the Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who shows the music of his homeland from its most passionate side: with Jean Sibelius’s Tchaikovsky-inspired First Symphony, and music by the internationally too little known Uuno Klami.
Allegro Non Troppo
Music
The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than parody status would imply. In the context of this film, "Allegro non Troppo" means Not So Fast!, an interjection meaning "slow down" or "think before you act" and refers to the film's pessimistic view of Western progress (as opposed to the optimism of Disney's original).
Teresa
Music
Teresa is a beautiful and intelligent young woman, desperately seeking to leave the grinding poverty of the neighborhood where she lives.
Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 8: Franck, Sibelius, Debussy and Rossini
Original Music Composer
The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Broadcast #8 was of a concert on March 15, 1952, at Carnegie Hall, featuring Sibelius's En Saga, two of Debussy's Nocturnes, and Franck's Redemption. (Concerts #8 and #9 were released on "Vol. 5" in the DVD series.)
In the Year 2000
Music
A 1950 Finnish short film.