Spring Song
Tone poem by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1895)
Native nameVårsång
Opus16
Composed1894 (1894), rev. 1895
PublisherFazer & Westerlund (1903)[1][lower-alpha 1]
Duration8 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)[3]
Premiere
Date21 June 1894 (1894-06-21)[4]
LocationVaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland
ConductorJean Sibelius
PerformersOrchestra 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 (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it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.[5]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.[lower-alpha 2] Time Recording venue Label Ref.
1 Paavo Berglund Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 1973 8:21 Southampton Guildhall EMI Classics
2 Sir Charles Groves Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 1975 6:56 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall EMI Classics
3 Sir Alexander Gibson Royal Scottish National Orchestra 1977 7:10 Glasgow City Halls Chandos
4 Neeme Järvi (1) Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1) 1986 8:17 Gothenburg Concert Hall BIS
5 Vassily Sinaisky Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra 1991 8:19 Mosfilm Studios Brilliant Classics
6 Neeme Järvi (2) Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2) 1994 7:46 Gothenburg Concert Hall Deutsche Grammophon
7 Osmo Vänskä (1) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1) 1999 8:14 Ristinkirkko BIS
8 Shuntaro Sato Kuopio Symphony Orchestra 2002 8:32 Kuopio Music Centre Finlandia
9 Osmo Vänskä (2) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2) 2007 7:34 Sibelius Hall BIS
10 Leif Segerstam Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra 2007 8:56 Finlandia Hall Ondine
11 Edward Gardner Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra 2018 7:45 Grieg Hall Chandos
12 Sakari Oramo BBC Symphony Orchestra 2018 9:03 Watford Colosseum Chandos

Notes, references, and sources

Notes
References
  1. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. 58.
  2. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. xxiv.
  3. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. 57.
  4. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. 28.
  5. ↑ Tawaststjerna 2008, p. 142.
  6. ↑ Score, Sibelius: Vårsång (Frühlingslied), Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig, 1903
  7. ↑ 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.
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