Jean Sibelius - Finlandia

10,004,925 views Jul 23, 2012

Finlandia, Op. 26 is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The first version was written in 1899, and it was revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, as the last of seven pieces, each performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes anywhere from 7½ to 9 minutes. A recurrent joke within Finland at this time was the renaming of Finlandia at various musical concerts so as to avoid Russian censorship. Titles under which the piece masqueraded were numerous, a famously flippant example being Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring. Most of the piece is taken up with rousing and turbulent music, evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people. But towards the end, a calm comes over the orchestra, and the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. Often incorrectly cited as a traditional folk melody, the Hymn section is of Sibelius's own creation. Although initially composed for orchestra, in 1900 Sibelius arranged the entire work for solo piano. Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland (though Maamme is the national anthem). With different words, it is also sung as a Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul), and was the national anthem of the short-lived African state of Biafra (Land of the Rising Sun). Created by Wild Scandinavia / Wildes Skandinavien / (2011) Directors: Oliver Goetzl Writers: Oliver Goetzl Cinematography: Ivo Nörenberg, Jan Henriksson and Rolf Steinmann Gulo Film Productions http://www.gulofilm.de/en/wildes-skan... "This film shows animal behaviour that has never been filmed before: Oliver Goetzl and Ivo Nörenberg got the first ever made shots of a wild lynx in the finish wilderness, they did highspeed shots of Goldeneye chicks jumping out of their tree nest, they filmed exciting encounters of bears and wolves. The documentary was shot with more than 650 shooting days."

Jean Sibelius - His Music and Life

Jean Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865 in Tawastehus/Finland and passed away September 9, 1957 in Helsinki.

Many of his in-laws and forefathers were well-known doctors, artists and clergy members. Sibelius began to study law at first. But unsatisfied, he changed his mind soon and shifted courses to music.

In 1890, his real composition works started. The first decade had been the most fruitful and successful period of Sibelius' whole career and life.

Finland's history and its wonderful ferry tales and legends had been inexhaustible source for symphonies and incredible orchestral suites such as "En Saga" (1892, revised in 1901), "Karelia" (1893), "Four Legends for Orchestra" (1895) and "Finlandia" (1900). Sibelius took most of his musical ideas from his native land Finland with Finnish longing and melancholy.

One might ask, whether Sibelius' "Violin Concert" was the composer's carefully planed revenge on the deities of this instrument.

In his childhood, Sibelius had first played the piano, but after a few years he switched to the violin. He later confessed: "The violin took me over completely. From then on for the next ten years or so my profoundest wish, the loftiest aspiration of my ambitions, was to become a great violin virtuoso." But Sibelius never quit managed to reach these goals. 

As I mentioned earlier: Sibelius took most of his musical ideas from his native land Finland. In this respect, the music that he wrote in 1906 for Hjalmar Procope's play "Belshazar's Feast" represents a rare excursion for the composer into the exotic and the oriental.