fuck yeah, sibelius

Jean Sibelius - Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52: II. Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Finnish; 1865–1931)

Symposium

Oil on canvas, 1894

Jean Sibelius by deSingel International Arts Campus on Flickr.

Jean Sibelius - Valse Triste (op. 44 n° 1).

I usually don’t care much about the video when I listen to music on the internet, but this one’s exceptional. There’s a huge image of a cloudy, sundrenched landscape behind a curtain on the stage. The curtain draws back as the music opens up to its full majesty, at 2:26. It’s quite possible to cry.

Sarah Chang is amazing. Regardless of your views on classical music, everyone ought to listen to this.

Jean Sibelius Symphony No 5 E flat major 1915 Salonen Swedish RSO

Published on Mar 26, 2012 by HaydnHouse

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2F285DB994389E4B&feature=view_all

The above link is to a playlist of all seven of Sibelius’ symphonies as performed by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Swedish RSO.

  Sibelius was commissioned to write this symphony by the Finnish government in honor of his 50th birthday, which had been declared a national holiday. The symphony was originally composed in 1915. It was revised first in 1916 and then again in 1919.

The original version was premiered by Sibelius himself with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on his own 50th birthday, 8 December 1915. The second version (only part of which has survived) was first performed by the Orchestra of Turun Soitannollinen Seura in Turku exactly one year later. The final version, which is the most commonly performed today, was premiered by Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on 24 November 1919.