# Sibelius’ Finlandia



## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

Hi everyone,

I’m currently on a very boring 4-day boat trip with my class so I’m making it up by listening to new music. I’m working on Beethoven’s string quartets for the first time as mentioned in another thread but I would also like to get into Sibelius symphonies. I think I want to start with Finlandia as a sort of gateway. To my surprise there wasn’t a thread for this work despite being one of his most popular pieces I believe, along with the 2nd symphony and the violin concerto. So what do you think of this piece and also do you have any recommendations for me? I have my eyes on Karajan’s dg gold recording because the peer gynt suites are so excellent


----------



## Bkeske (Feb 27, 2019)

The Karajan is good, but also check out Paavo Berglund with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Finlandia is an odd work - it's not nearly as popular as it used to be and I have no idea why. It's fun and rewarding to play and a heck of a thrill to conduct. It's not terribly difficult for a good orchestra. And yet you just don't see it programmed anymore. There are so many excellent recordings and you can't really go wrong with any of them. Berglund, Karajan, Levi, Ormandy...they're all fine. Go for the best digital sound you can get.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

And then there is the version which incorporates a choral part for the hymn section with words written in 1941


----------



## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I like Ashkenazy's version with the Philharmonia.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Becca said:


> And then there is the version which incorporates a choral part for the hymn section with words written in 1941


One of my favourite versions. The choir is superb.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

In part it was artificially popular because Finland was ne of the few countries to pay off its war debs. I enjoy the beginning because it sounds lie the soundtrack to a '50s horror movie.


----------



## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

I recommend the Jarvi Symphony cycle on BIS. Sound is incredible


----------



## John O (Jan 16, 2021)

Becca said:


> And then there is the version which incorporates a choral part for the hymn section with words written in 1941


I guess you are referring to the Finlandia Hymn: the alternative national anthem of Finland, there are other hymns including two in English "Be still, my soul" and "We rest on Thee " which use the same tune.


----------



## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I've provided live piano accompaniment for silent films a few times, which is an oddball art form. 

Originally pianists or organists would simply choose stuff to play, sometimes improvising, sometimes using popular music they felt were appropriate to the scenes.

If you could find the "playlist" that some organist in Nebraska came up with for a film in 1921, it wouldn't necessarily work as well today. Those popular songs used would have been known by a great many viewers, and could instantly evoke a response, and make perfect sense.

If I used those same songs today, they would not resonate the same way, as no one would associate anything with the lyrics of a song long forgotten, especially an instrumental version.

Anyway, I accompanied a showing of *The General*, which is about a TRAIN named "The General", which is stolen from the Union by the Confederacy, then stolen back by Buster Keaton. The final climax was the demise of the train, the most expensive scene ever filmed at the time. I used an edited version of a piano transcription of *FINLANDIA* for the scene.


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Finlandia is one of those pieces one instantly recognizes, simply by hearing the opening chord.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I don't greatly like the choral version (at least in Segerstam's recording) - it makes me cringe to be honest - but the usual orchestral version is a work I like quite a lot and still listen to. I think it makes a great gateway work for those wanting to get to know Sibelius.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

FINLANDIA by Jean Sibelius - Music History Crash Course


----------



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I first sampled Sibelius' _Finlandia_ as a teenager in the 1980s in a recording by Leonard Bernsten on a CBS budget LP that also featured the music of Grieg. While there's nothing wrong with Bernstein's enthusiastic and energetic reading, some may find it a bit noisy compared to a more smooth or refined recording by the likes of Karajan or Ormandy.










Among other short little orchestral gems that I also like is the beautiful _Swan of Tuonela_, _Valse Triste_, and the less often recorded but striking _Luonnotar_ but for soprano and orchestra.

The seven cannonical symphonies by Sibelius comprise one of the finest symphonic cycles ever composed by anyone and that includes the likes of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schuman, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Nielsen, Vaughan Williams, and Shostakovich. For those symphonies I like the incomplete cycle that Leonard Bernstein recorded during the 1980s for DG records with the Vienna Philharmonic. Here Bernstein takes Sibelius' _Symphonies #1, 2, 5 & 7_ to a very unusual apporach and slows the tempos while bringing the dynamics to maximum intensity. Like it or not, there are no other Sibelius recordings quite like those Bernstein/DG recordings. For Sibelius' _Symphonies #4 & 6_ there's always Karajan (also DG) with the Berlin Philharmonic in an especially fine recording of Sibelius' _4th_, perhaps the best Sibelius symphony of them all despite the dramatics of the ever-popular and noisy _2nd_. I'm not sure what to recommend for the wonderful and underrated _3rd_ but there are many fine recordings by Ashkanzy, Berglund, and others. There is a nice and perfectly fine complete Sibelius cycle from the good people of NAXOS that features the likes of one Petri Sakari with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, for those of you who would like to bypass the mighty Bernstein and Karajan so that you can support the little guy among giants.




























The Sibelius symphonies have a certain combination of pathos and majesty somewhat along the lines of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich; and this always brings me to the far north. I find that enjoy Sibelius more in winter than in any other season as we here in New England often receive our own share of arctic weather during winter months. Like Beethoven or Brahms, Sibelius also brings me to nature; cool lakes, clean air, big rivers, towering pines, powerful hills and mountains, loons and moose.

The Sibelius _Violin Concerto_ is also a favorite and there are many fine recordings, Here again, Bernstein and Karajan steal the show; Bernstein withethe likes of Zino Francescatti and Karajan with Christian Ferras. Francescatti and Ferris (both French) are very warm and sunny in their approach; but then there's David Oistrakh from the old USSR who joins Philadephia's Eugene Ormandy in a musical cold war summit. Oistrakh brings a certain, sad, Russian soulfuless to Sibelius' _Violin Concerto_; almost as if Tchaikovsky had composed it. Oistakh and Ormandy: the "O"s have it!










For a literay suppliment try digging up the essay _Finlandia_ by the American writer, William Saroyan, who jorurnies to Finland to meet Sibelius during his long retirement. Saroyan wants to talk music with the old man but all Sibelius wants to do is smoke cigars and drink whisky.

William Saroyan/Jean Sibelius


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Always my favorite recording because the powerful droning strings as the tension builds early in the work make me think of the beginning of the Normandy Invasion.


1959


----------



## verandai (Dec 10, 2021)

The recording quality of this obviously can't be good, but I find the performance very moving somehow, especially when the choir split starts (solo starts at 0:28, choir divisi at 1:20):


----------



## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

I think I’m going to go with Ormandy, really like him so it couldn’t possibly be a bad choice


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I can't recall the last time I listened to _Finlandia_ in a listening session here at home. I do know I've come across it now and then when the "classical" radio was on in the ol' Jeep. But it remains a piece that I do not turn to often. Still ... Sibelius has so much good music, and he is a regular in my listening schedule, as are so many Scandinavian composers, including many many Finns. So, because of the Sibelius symphonies and tone poems and the violin concerto, and all that additional "northern" music which I've come to love largely due to my affection for Sibelius, some things get neglected

Yet, I can admit that _Finlandia_ is one of the first pieces of "classical" music I ever heard, and it certainly brought me into the musical world of Sibelius. I remain a great fan of the Second Symphony, the symphonies in general, and of the Violin Concerto, and I have multiple copies of all those works and access them all the time. But the _Finlandia_ has been neglected. Which is not a good thing, I will posit.

Checking my Discogs database I see I have at least a dozen recordings of the work in my collection, including the interpretations of several major players: Karajan, Barbirolli, Bernstein, Ormandy, Colin Davis, Osmo Vänskä and Vladimir Ashkenazy, to name a few. Which means I have no excuses for not hearing this work, and I plan to turn to it (actually, several times with different recordings in the sampling) soon. 

Perhaps _Finlandia_ has disappeared from the concert hall simply because it is in some ways so ubiquitous on radio and television. I suspect that when Finland enters NATO the piece might find programming opportunities open up in European and U.S. orchestras.


----------



## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

I like the Osmo Vanka recording with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.


----------

