# Sibelius, "Nightride and Sunrise"



## cathcacr (May 14, 2008)

I'm frustrated that my guidebooks and other resources totally give short shrift to masterpieces like this. Not an entirely obscure piece by a not at all obscure composer, but its quality:recognition ratio is well up there. I'd only recently become familiar with this work (after first having such lesser Sibelius tone poems as "Finlandia" and "Swan of Tuonela" foisted upon me by all the critics; at least they have the wits to recognize the genius of "Tapiola," so why not this?) and it's become one of my very favorites. The latter half is utterly glowing as a depiction of nature and ranks up there with any other extended passage from this master that you could cite, and there's quite a bit from him that I love. It's about as characteristically Sibelian as anything, composed ca. 1907-1909 between his 3rd and 4th symphonies. I'd probably liken it most to the final movement from his 5th.

I've heard 3 different renditions so far out of the dozen or so on Napster, and my favorite -- despite the semi-intrusive humming that the conductor apparently likes to do (as I found out from his '07 recording of Sibelius 2 with LSO) -- is the Colin Davis on RCA Red Seal.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Its a pretty stark piece...but it gets more wonderfull the more you listen to it. It is always overshadowed by Finlandia, En Saga and Pohjola ect. In fact...Gershwin is just finishing his " I got Music " variations....I think I'll just pop it on.


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## Kurkikohtaus (Oct 22, 2006)

First of all, let me state that I too like this piece quite a bit. That said, I think the problem with the recoginition of this piece is twofold.

First of all, once the sleigh gets going, the ostinato dotted-rhythm that represents the Night Ride makes for a rather long section that probably seems monotonous and dull to the uninitiated listener.

Secondly, recordings and Colin Davis aside, this piece is very, _very_ difficult to perform live with anything but a great orchestra. The technical challenges that the music places on the strings are quite unique and often lead to messy performances in the concert hall.

For these reasons, many conductors shy away from programming it and it has therefore yet to sink into the collective concert-going subconscious.


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