The fifth Sibelius Festival Golfo del Tigullio e Rivieria in Italy will take place from 27 September until 13 October 2019. Its artistic director is Federico Ermirio.
Artists performing include the Myrsky Sring Quartet, Andrea Carcano, Paolo Restani and Folke Gräsbeck (piano), Eva Alkula and Jenny Vartiainen (kantele), Irene Cerboncini (soprano) and the Symphony Orchestra of La Spezia Conservatory conducted by Giovanni Di Stefano.
Further information will be posted in due course.
Programmes for the 2019 BBC Proms season have been announced. For Sibelius enthusiasts the season is notable for including a rarity of exceptional importance: the four-movement 1915 version of the Fifth Symphony.
Sibelius is represented at the following concerts:
Wednesday 31 July 2019, 7.30 pm, Royal Albert Hall: Prom 17
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier – Suite
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Mariss Jansons
Lisa Batiashvili, violin
Seats £18 to £72 (plus booking fee)
Saturday 3 August 2019, 7.30 pm, Royal Albert Hall: Prom 20
Violinist Pekka Kuusisto traces the evolution of Finland’s classical tradition, from improvised folk beginnings to the sophisticated brilliance of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. The concert closes with the rarely heard original version of the Fifth Symphony.
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 (original version, 1915)
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Taito Hoffrén, Ilona Korhonen, Minna-Liisa Tammela, singers
Vilma Timonen, kantele; Timo Alakotila, harmonium
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Thomas Dausgaard
Seats £7.50 to £41 (plus booking fee)
Tuesday 6 August 2019, 7.30 pm, Royal Albert Hall: Prom 25
Jean Sibelius: Karelia Suite
Mieczysław Weinberg: Cello Concerto
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6, ‘Pathétique’
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Dalia Stasevska
Sol Gabetta, cello
Seats £9.50 to £52 (plus booking fee)
Modest Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Louis Andriessen: The Only One
Judith Weir: Forest
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 (final version, 1919)
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Srkari Oramo
Nora Fischer, singer
Seats £7.50 to £41 (plus booking fee)
General booking opens 0n 11 May 2019. For further information click here to go to the Proms website.
A new addition to the Sibelius One website is Sibelius Reconsidered, presenting papers from the Fifth International Jean Sibelius Conference, held in September 2010 in Oxford, UK. Included here are in-depth articles by leading scholars on Sibelius reception, analyses and sketch studies of his works, discussions of his position in the early 20th-century music as well as his relationship to the political events of his time.
The papers may be downloaded free of charge.
Authors who have contributed papers are:
Barry Wiener; Ilkka Oramo; Timothy L. Jackson; Veijo Murtomäki; Antti Vihinen; Folke Gräsbeck; Tim Howell; Marc Vignal; Mart Humal; Sakari Ylivuori; Ron Weidberg; Timo Virtanen; Colin Davis; Tuija Wicklund; Nors S. Josephson; Olli Väisälä; Les Black; Kerri Kotta
Click here to visit this section of the website and download the articles.
A concert focusing on Sibelius’s music for violin and piano will be given at Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School, on Sunday 5 May 2019 by two of Britain’s outstanding recitalists, Fenella Humphreys and Joseph Tong.
Described in the press as ‘alluring’ and ‘unforgettable’, Fenella Humphreys is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists. The award-winning British pianist Joseph Tong enjoys a busy and varied career as soloist, duo pianist, chamber musician, festival director and teacher. Both have wide experience of performing the music of Sibelius, which they have recorded to great acclaim.
Works by Sibelius share the programme with the lush mysticism of Rautavaara and Arvo Pärt’s famous, breath-catching meditation on reflection, Spiegel im Spiegel.
The concert is sponsored by Sibelius One and will also be recorded for issue on CD.
Date and time: Sunday 5 May 2019 at 8 pm
Venue: Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School, College Road, Wells BA5 2ST (directions: click here)
Tickets: £10.00 (under-25s free). Click here to book.
Programme:
Sibelius Five Piece, Op. 81
Sibelius Andante Cantabile, JS 33
Sibelius Four Pieces, Op. 78
Rautavaara Summer Thoughts
Pärt Spiegel im Spiegel
Sibelius Danses champêtres, Op. 106
Sibelius Four Pieces, Op. 115
Sibelius Three Pieces, Op. 116
The first CD release in what will be a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies has been announced by the Grand Philharmonic Symphonic Society Orchestra of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conducted by Kim Tik-tok.
The orchestra is newly established and is only the second large orchestra of Western style in North Korea, alongside the State Symphony Orchestra of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The first disc will include Symphony No. 2. To quote a press release: ‘Grand Philharmonic Symphonic Society Orchestra of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea makes known to all dongmu in People’s Republic for the first time music of Finnish SIBELIUS Jean-Christian-Julius. Sibelius is in Finland very famous. His Second Symphony is a revolting work, Finnish people against Russia.’
For details of availability or to order the CD, please click here.