It is not very common to hear all Sibelius’s symphonies in two weekends, played by one orchestra being led by one conductor. Especially in The Netherlands, where a lot of Sibelius’s music is for some reason still relatively obscure, and one might be lucky to hear a Sibelius symphony being performed by any of the major orchestras only once a year. So it was certainly a bold move for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra to organize a Sibelius Festival and to invite Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste to conduct a complete Sibelius symphony cycle…
Literature and visual arts inspired Sibelius throughout his career. Under the title Sibelius on the Scene, the Seventh International Jean Sibelius Conference will include presentations on Sibelius’s music composed for the scene and dealing with Sibelius on the scene of the cultural and social life of his time, with a special focus on the decade following the declaration of Finland’s independence, plus various topics of performance practice, textual scholarship and music analysis.
Presentations will last 20 minutes (+ 10 minutes discussion) and be in English.
The deadline for registration is 31 May 2020, and the standard participation fee is € 250.
Keynote speakers will be Prof. Daniel Grimley (University of Oxford, England), the composer Éric Tanguy (France) and Prof. Luigi Verdi (Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music, Rome, Italy).
Information about accommodation in Hämeenlinna will be available on the conference website (www.sibeliusseura.fi) in January 2020. You should plan to arrive on Sunday 6 September 2020.
The concerence’s organizing committee is:
Prof. Timo Virtanen, Editor-in-Chief of the Jean Sibelius Works, chairman
DMus, conductor Tuomas Hannikainen Prof. Veijo Murtomäki
DMus Tuija Wicklund, editor of the Jean Sibelius Works
PhD Antti Vihinen
Anna Krohn, secretary
For more information, please contact Anna Krohn, general secretary of the international Jean Sibelius Conference 2020 anna.marketta.krohn@gmail.com
tel. +358 40 7247 127
The first four concerts, on 17 and 19 May, were a great success. A group of listeners from Sibelius One joined the audience at De Doelen to enjoy excellent performances of Sibelius’s Symphonies 1, 3 and 4, Humoresques, Finlandia, songs (with orchestra and with piano), violin music and piano music – plus some Finnish folk music.
On Friday 29 November there will be two concerts: 17.00 Baiba Skride, violin; members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Sibelius Malinconia; Piano Quintet; Andante festivo 20.15 Baiba Skride, violin; Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste Sibelius Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 2
On Sunday 1 December there will be two more concerts: 14.15 Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste Sibelius Symphonies Nos 5, 6 & 7 17.00 YL Male Voice Choir / Pasi Hyökki Sibelius Choral Works
and Finnish folk music
Sibelius: States of Independence is the title of a concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Southbank Centre in London on 31 May 2019.
The concert rounds off the orchestra’s Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness season with the definitive musical celebration of freedom and liberty.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment specializes in playing pieces of music on period-specific instruments to create unique performances. Thus Sibelius’s Second Symphony will be played on the instruments that Sibelius would have been writing for. This is the first time that Sibelius 2 will be performed on period instruments and promises to be a very exciting concert.
Conductor Vladimir Jurowski is joined by violinist Alina Ibragimova for an evening also featuring the music of Elgar and Richard Strauss.
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Vladimir Jurowskiconductor Alina Ibragimovaviolin
Elgar: Serenade for strings Richard Strauss: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.8 Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
At 7 pm on Saturday 13 July 2019 at St Mary’s Church, Islington, a launch event will be held for John Greening’s collection of poetry The Silence (published by Carcanet), which concentrates on Jean Sibelius and his struggle with the Eighth Symphony.
This launch is free to attend, but please reserve a place via Eventbrite (click here for more information and reservation link). There is also a Facebook page. The event will include reading from John Greening, as well as music from the Dryad String Quartet (from Sibelius’s Voces intimae). There will be the opportunity to ask questions, and refreshments will be sold. For each copy of the book sold, £1 will be donated to Hospice Care Kenya. Please direct any queries to jazmine@carcanet.co.uk. The evening is co-hosted by Poetry in the Crypt.
The title poem is a meditation on Sibelius and the thirty years he spent grappling with an eighth symphony that he eventually burned. The poem is emblematic of a broader concern with the mystery of the creative process, explored in the work of other artists but also grappled with first-hand, in the composition of poems.
The concert focusing on Sibelius’s music for violin and piano at Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School, on Sunday 5 May 2019 by Fenella Humphreys and Joseph Tong has been postponed owing to illness. It will be rearranged on a later date – further information will be posted when available.
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.
Royal Albert Hall, London (Photo by David Iliff. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0)
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)
Sunday 8 September 2019, 7.30 pm, Royal Albert Hall: Prom 67
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)
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
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.
