"", Op. 3, is an art song for vocal soloist (typically soprano) and accompaniment written in 1911 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who appears to have worked simultaneously on two versions of the song: one with strings and the other with piano. The piece, which is a setting of the Swedish-language poem ("The Maiden's Seasons") by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Sibelius's favorite poet, premiered on 18 September 1913 in Helsinki with the Finnish soprano Ida Ekman as soloist, accompanied by her husband, , on piano. The next year in Turku on 30 March, the version of the piece for string orchestra was first performed, again with Ekman as soloist; her husband this time conducted the Turku Orchestral Society.
Sibelius infamously gave "" an artificially low opus number to avoid a contractual dispute with his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel. (Sibelius had sold both versions of "" to the Helsinki-based publisher , who then tried to sell the rights to Breitkopf & Härtel. When Breitkopf & Härtel protested, Sibelius fibbed, claiming that the song was an older piece that dated to 1890.) Apostle never published the version for strings, and in 1917 his holdings transferred to , who subsequently issued the first edition of this version in 1951.
Music Original Swedish English translationFlickan gick en vintermorgon i den rimbeströdda lunden, såg en vissnad ros och talte: "Sörj ej, sörj ej, arma blomma, att din sköna tid förflutit! Du har levat, du har njutit, du har ägt din vår och glädje, innan vinterns köld dig nådde. Värre öde har mitt hjärta, har på en gång vår och vinter: gossens öga är dess vårdag, och min moders är dess vinter".One winter morning the girl walked in the frost-strewn grove, saw a withered rose and said: "Do not lament, poor flower, that your happy time is over! You have lived, you have delighted, you have possessed your joyous spring, before the winter cold reached you. My heart suffers a worse fate, it holds spring and winter at once: my lover's eyes are its spring day, my mother's are its winter".
Reception The British musicologist Robert Layton describes "" as possessing "the grave air of melancholy that distinguishes the elegiac Grieg, and much the same intentness and conviction ... there is a touching directness of utterance about this music and more than a hint of the wide-ranging vocal writing" that Sibelius would master subsequently with the tone poem Luonnotar (Op. 70, 1913). The Sibelius biographer Andrew Barnett, too emphasizes the relation to the Norwegian master: """ is a very fine song, with a vein of Nordic melancholy and string textures that have often been compared to Grieg".
Discography
The Swedish conductor and composer Ture Rangström and the Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra, joined by the Finnish soprano Aulikki Rautawaara, made the world premiere studio recording of "" in 1942 for Telefunken. The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings of the version with string orchestra: SoloistConductorOrchestraTimeRecording venueLabel1Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra19424:02?Telestar2 (2)London Symphony Orchestra19584:06Kingsway HallDecca3Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra19843:48Gothenburg Concert HallBIS4 (2)City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra20014:24Symphony Hall, BirminghamWarner Classics 5Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra20054:38Finlandia HallOndine
The version of "" for piano accompaniment received its first studio recording in 1981, when the Finnish baritone Tom Krause and the American pianist Irwin Gage recorded it for Decca. Predating this, however, is a 1954 radio performance by the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the Norwegian pianist , which released in 1996. The table below includes these and other commercially available recordings: SoloistPianistTimeRecording venueLabel1 (1)19545:03NRK Studios219814:13Kingsway HallDecca319883:26Ondine419894:06Danderyd Grammar SchoolBIS5 (1)19954:44Ondine620064:04Art Centre Salmela
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