Spring Song (Sibelius)

Tone poem by Jean Sibelius

Spring Song
Tone poem by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1895)
Native name	Vårsång
Opus	16
Composed	1894 (1894), rev. 1895
Publisher	Fazer & Westerlund [fi] (1903)^[1]^[a]
Duration	8 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)^[3]
Premiere
Date	21 June 1894 (1894-06-21)^[4]
Location	Vaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland
Conductor	Jean Sibelius
Performers	Orchestra of the Song Festival

Spring Song (in Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

History

The piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the Society for Popular Education [fi] (Kansanvalistusseura). Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.^[5]

Structure

The work is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glocken, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.^[6] Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.

$\relative c' \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } { \key f \major \time 3/4 \tempo "" r4^\markup \italic cantabile c\mp ( d) c4.$ bes8( d bes) c4$ f--( e-- f) c2 d4-- $ e8\> ( d e4\! d4.) $ \< c8( \> $ e c\! ) d2.$ \< d2.*5/6 s8\! }$

The tempo marking is: Tempo moderato e sostenuto. The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of bells at the end of the song.^[7]

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:

No.	Conductor	Orchestra	Rec.^[b]	Time	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
1	Paavo Berglund	Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	1973	8:21	Southampton Guildhall	EMI Classics	^[c]
2	Sir Charles Groves	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra	1975	6:56	Liverpool Philharmonic Hall	EMI Classics	^[d]
3	Sir Alexander Gibson	Royal Scottish National Orchestra	1977	7:10	Glasgow City Halls	Chandos	^[e]
4	Neeme Järvi (1)	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1)	1986	8:17	Gothenburg Concert Hall	BIS	^[f]
5	Vassily Sinaisky	Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	8:19	Mosfilm Studios	Brilliant Classics	^[g]
6	Neeme Järvi (2)	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2)	1994	7:46	Gothenburg Concert Hall	Deutsche Grammophon	^[h]
7	Osmo Vänskä (1)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1)	1999	8:14	Ristinkirkko	BIS	^[i]
8	Shuntaro Sato	Kuopio Symphony Orchestra [fi]	2002	8:32	Kuopio Music Centre [fi]	Finlandia	^[j]
9	Osmo Vänskä (2)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2)	2007	7:34	Sibelius Hall	BIS	^[k]
10	Leif Segerstam	Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra	2007	8:56	Finlandia Hall	Ondine	^[l]
11	Edward Gardner	Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra	2018	7:45	Grieg Hall	Chandos	^[m]
12	Sakari Oramo	BBC Symphony Orchestra	2018	9:03	Watford Colosseum	Chandos	^[n]

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

^ On 20 July 1905, the Helsinki-based music publisher Fazer & Westerlund [fi] (Helsingfors Nya Musikhandel) sold its Sibelius holdings (the publishing rights and printing plates) to the German firm of Breitkopf & Härtel.^[2]
^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
^ P. Berglund–EMI Classics (5 69773 2) 1997
^ C. Groves–EMI Classics (5 85532 2) 2003
^ A. Gibson–Chandos (CHAN 8395/6) 1985
^ N. Järvi–BIS (CD–384) 1988
^ V. Sinaisky–Brilliant Classics (BC9212) 2010
^ Neeme. Järvi–DG (00028947755227) yyyy
^ O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1125) 2000
^ S. Sato–Finlandia (0927–49598–2) 2003
^ O. Vänskä–BIS (SACD–1645) 2009
^ L. Segerstam–Ondine (ODE 1112–2) 2007
^ E. Gardner–Chandos (CHSA 5217) 2021
^ S. Oramo–Chandos (CHAN 20136) 2019

References

^ Dahlström 2003, p. 58.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. xxiv.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. 57.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. 28.
^ Tawaststjerna 2008, p. 142.
^ Score, Sibelius: Vårsång (Frühlingslied), Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig, 1903
^ Barnett 2007.

Sources

Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11159-0.
Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
Tawaststjerna, Erik (2008) [1965/1967; trans. 1976]. Sibelius: Volume I, 1865–1905. Translated by Layton, Robert. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-24772-1.

External links

Spring Song (Vårsång), Op. 16: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Johnston, Blair. Spring Song at AllMusic

Jean Sibelius

Symphonies

Kullervo (1892)
Symphony No. 1 (1899, rev. 1900)
Symphony No. 2 (1902)
Symphony No. 3 (1907)
Symphony No. 4 (1911)
Symphony No. 5 (1915, rev. 1916, 1919)
Symphony No. 6 (1923)
Symphony No. 7 (1924)
Symphony No. 8 (mid 1920s–c. 1938, abandoned)

Concertante

Violin Concerto (1904, rev. 1905)
Two Serenades (1912–1913)
Two Serious Melodies (1914–1915)
Six Humoresques (1917–1918, No. 1 rev. 1940)
Suite for Violin and String Orchestra (1929)

Tone poems

En saga (1892, rev. 1902)
Spring Song (1894, rev. 1895)
The Wood Nymph (1895)
Lemminkäinen Suite
- 1895, rev. 1897, 1900, 1939; includes The Swan of Tuonela
Finlandia (1899)
Pohjola's Daughter (1906)
Nightride and Sunrise (1909)
The Dryad (1910)
The Bard (1913)
Luonnotar (1913)
The Oceanides (1914, rev. 1914)
Tapiola (1926)

Opera & theatre

The Building of the Boat (1893–1894, abandoned)
The Maiden in the Tower (1896)
King Christian II (1898)
Kuolema
- 1903; includes Valse triste
Pelléas et Mélisande (1905)
Belshazzar's Feast (1906)
Swanwhite (1908)
The Lizard (1909)
The Language of the Birds (1911)
Scaramouche (1913)
Everyman (1916)
The Tempest (1925)

Cantatas

Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1894
Cantata for the Coronation of Nicholas II (1896)
Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1897
The Origin of Fire (1902, rev. 1910)
The Captive Queen (1906)
My Own Land (1918)
Song of the Earth (1919)
Hymn of the Earth (1920)
Väinämöinen's Song (1926)

Other voice(s) & orchestra

The Rapids-Rider's Brides (1897)
The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River (1899)
Snöfrid (1900)
Marjatta (1905, abandoned)
Impromptu (1902, rev. 1910)
The Raven (1910, abandoned)

Other orchestral

Overture in E major (1891)
Ballet Scene (1891)
Karelia Suite (1893)
Rakastava (1894, arr. 1912)
Scènes historiques I (1899, arr. 1911)
Overture in A minor (1902)
Romance in C major (1904)
Cassazione (1904, rev. 1905)
Pan and Echo (1906)
In memoriam (1909, rev. 1910)
Scènes historiques II (1912)
Suite mignonne (1921)
Suite champêtre (1922)
Suite caractéristique (1922)

String quartets

String Quartet in E-flat major (1885)
String Quartet in A minor (1889)
String Quartet in B-flat major (1890)
String Quartet in D minor, Voces intimae (1909)
Andante festivo (1922, orch. 1938)

Piano trios

Piano Trio in A minor, Hafträsk (1886)
Piano Trio in D major, Korpo (1887)
Piano Trio in C major, Lovisa (1888)

Other chamber

Water Droplets (c. 1875–1881)
Pieces for brass septet (1889–1899)
Piano Quintet (1890)
Malinconia (1900)
Violin Sonatina (1915)

Piano

Six Impromptus (1893)
Piano Sonata (1893)
Ten Pieces, Op. 24 (1895–1903)
Kyllikki (1904)
Three Sonatinas (1912)
The Bells of Kallio Church (1912, arr. 1912)
Two Rondinos (1912)
Five Pieces, The Trees, Op. 75 (1914)
Five Pieces, The Flowers, Op. 85 (1916–1917)
Five Esquisses (1929)

Songs

Seven Runeberg Songs, Op. 13 (1891–1892)
"Serenad", JS 168 (1894–1895)
Six Songs, Op. 36 (1899–1900)
Five Songs, Op. 37 (1900–1902)
Seven Songs, Op. 17 (1891–1904)
Five Songs, Op. 38 (1903–1904; includes "Höstkväll")
Six Songs, Op. 50 (1906)
Two Songs, Op. 35 (1908)
"Kom nu hit, död", Op. 60/1 (1909, orch. 1957)
"Arioso", Op. 3 (1911)
Five Christmas Songs, Op. 1 (1897–1913; includes "Giv mig ej glans, ej guld, ej prakt")
Six Runeberg Songs, Op. 90 (1917)