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Sibelius: Suite from King Kristian II, Op. 27
Jean Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland on
December 8, 1865 and died in Järvenpää, Finland, on
September 20, 1957. He composed the incidental music
for Adolf Paul’s play, King Kristian II, in 1898. The suite
runs approximately 23 minutes in performance, and is
scored for 2 flutes, 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani,
percussion, and orchestral strings.
Sibelius’s music for King Kristian II was the first of the 11 highly effective scores
he composed to accompany stage plays. A long-time friend, the Swedish
playwright Adolf Paul, had been pressing him for years to collaborate on a
theatrical production, and this was the project that finally brought them together.
Based on historical events, Paul’s play centred on the monarch who ruled
Denmark, Norway and Sweden during the sixteenth century. Dyveke, a Dutch
woman whom the king loved, was poisoned by one of his political opponents. This
led the king to massacre a large number of his enemies.
Sibelius used a small orchestra due to the limited resources available in the
theatre. At the première, the score consisted of Musette, Elegy, Minuet, and a
vocal work, the Fool’s Song. Paul urged him to compose additional selections, and
he responded with the Nocturne, Serenade and Ballade. He prepared a concert
suite from the score, and Paul arranged for it to be performed in Leipzig. That
event marked the first time that any of Sibelius’s music had been heard in
Germany. It became his first orchestral work to appear in print.
It opens with the Nocturne. Its personality may surprise listeners who think of
Sibelius solely as the creator of dark and chilly music. Its warm, sweeping themes
and luxurious orchestration recall the Italianite opera style of Puccini. It’s followed
by a delicately melancholy Elegy (the prelude to the play) that Sibelius scored for
strings alone. He featured bassoons and clarinets in the playful Musette, intending
them to imitate the sound of bagpipes. Next comes an expressive Serenade, its
upbeat mood shadowed only by a few touches of lingering regret. The suite
concludes with the animated call to arms of a heroic Ballade.
Programme Note by Don Anderson
© Copyright 2013 Toronto Symphony Orchestra