Sibelius Violin Concerto as isolated

[Chaszz]

There is much great music in Sibelius' output. Yet it seems to me that all his music is in a small degree reserved when compared with his violin concerto, where the feeling is very direct and personal. The rest of his work, though much is mighty, is slightly glacial when compared with this very "hot" work. Do you think I am right or wrong? If right, what do you think might be the reason for this? And could this reserve of feeling perhaps be related to whatever it was that robbed him of the ability to compose at all from middle age onward?

[DavidRoss]

The violin concerto is more overtly Romantic than his later work.  Written in 1903 and revised until 1905, it preceded the 3rd symphony and Sibelius's turn to more formal concerns in the "absolute music" of his symphonies.  To me all his major work is very direct and personal, even more so from the 4th Symphony on.  Perhaps you are responding to his special feeling for the violin, since that was his instrument, and the violin concerto is thus a very personal expression for his first love in music?

If we consider middle age as starting at 40, then we may recognize that rather than "being robbed of his ability to compose," Sibelius's middle years were his most fruitful period, giving us the 3rd through 7th Symphonies and such other major works as Voces Intimae, Tapiola, Oceanides, Pohjola's Daughter, Luonnotar, and The Tempest.  He didn't slack off until he was in his sixties and working on the ill-fated 8th Symphony, which he burned in his early seventies. 

[Szykneij]

I just listened to my David Oistrakh/Ormandy recording of the piece and it is a marvelous work. Part of the feeling you get from it might be due to the fact that Sibelius focuses on the lower register of the violin quite a bit, particularly in the first two movements and especially during the cadenza and solo passages that occur early on. Even the orchestral accompaniment is heavy with low strings while all the strings seem to dominate throughout. I'm not sure if this is Sibelius' intent or partly a Philadelphia thing because I don't have another recording to compare it to. The piece rarely ventures out of the minor mode and other than the playful harmonics melody in the last movement, the mood remains somber throughout. Even the neat horse-gallup ryhtmic motiff that permeates the third movement doesn't lighten things up too much. I was surprised that the short final chord of the concerto is a major one.

[Mirror Image]

There is much great music in Sibelius' output. Yet it seems to me that all his music is in a small degree reserved when compared with his violin concerto, where the feeling is very direct and personal. The rest of his work, though much is mighty, is slightly glacial when compared with this very "hot" work. Do you think I am right or wrong? If right, what do you think might be the reason for this? And could this reserve of feeling perhaps be related to whatever it was that robbed him of the ability to compose at all from middle age onward?

As David said, Sibelius' instrument was the violin, so it's only fitting that a certain outward virtuosity be displayed. I seldom listen to his VC, because I don't think it's that particularly interesting of a composition. I never have been able to connect to the work like I have his other compositions. Many people enjoy it though and it is a standard repertoire piece for violin and orchestra. If you're an upcoming violinist, you need to be able to play this work and play it well.

[some guy]

I'd be interested in what Sibelius you know.

"Reserved" just isn't the word I would use. And if it's "hot" you want, what's hotter than Kullervo? Why, next to that, the violin concerto seems, um, rather.... I guess I would use the word "reserved"!

[Luke]

I'd be interested in what Sibelius you know.

"Reserved" just isn't the word I would use. And if it's "hot" you want, what's hotter than Kullervo? Why, next to that, the violin concerto seems, um, rather.... I guess I would use the word "reserved"!

No, I think I know what he's getting at - Kullervo is 'hot' in a very different way, and not 'hot' in the way the OP means, I suspect. Dramatic, intense, visceral, certainly, but in a kind of distanced, epic way, runic way (the cliches are true, unfortunately). It's a drama setting a dreadfully personal text, true, but it's ancient, distant, symbolic, archetypal, and it takes place on a bed of giant sheets of music, which Sibelius is controls things masterfully, and in a sense objectively. Something similar happens in the symphnonies - it's part of what makes them so great, the weight of the formal divisions of the music bending each other, the drama as one musical type gives way to another. It's true symphonism.

OTOH the violin concerto has a sort of subjective intensity that I think comes form the play between a soloist, a lone voice, with its mixture of introversion and outreaching extroversion, and an orchestra whose own music, when it's not in dialogue with the soloist, would not be out of place in one of the earlier symphonies.  My theory about the piece's relative 'hotness' would therefore be that it's because it is a concerto, not because it's for violin; I can imagine a Sibelius cello concerto being equally 'hot' quite easily.

[starrynight]

Yes, the concerto is very different to the symphony.  Even back in the classical period composers had started to write for the concerto as an individual voice against the orchestra.  People sometimes write of the aria-like qualities of Mozart piano concertos.  The symphony on the other hand had come to represent a more 'objective' unified statement.

[Chaszz]

The forum host must really need the money if he is inserting advertising right into the threads. I will put an Amazon line in my bookmarks tool that brings me here every time I click on Amazon, and then buy at Amazon from here. May I ask if non-musical items purchased at Amazon also benefit this forum?  If not, can it be arranged that they do? I fairly regularly buy all sorts of things there, and actually rarely buy music anymore since I can usually get whatever work I want (though not by desired conductor/band) from the library. 

[Brian]

May I ask if non-musical items purchased at Amazon also benefit this forum?

Yes, everything in your cart benefits GMG. And last I heard, maintaining this site costs $2000 a year or $38 a week.