{"id":13957,"date":"2015-12-08T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T18:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=13957"},"modified":"2015-12-08T10:06:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T18:06:47","slug":"sibelius-150th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/08\/sibelius-150th\/","title":{"rendered":"sibelius&#8217; 150th"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Birthday, Jean Sibelius! I love the symphonies of Sibelius (with the possible exception of No. 2, and that&#8217;s only because of the endless scale patterns that annoy me to play &#8211; I love listening to it), and I have since before there was ever an inkling that I&#8217;d make music my profession. NPR has celebrated by digging into its archives and finding interviews with Michael Steinberg covering each of the symphonies. Each one is just a couple minutes long, and Steinberg has a way of talking about music that is both erudite and easy to understand \u2013 a rare combination!<\/p>\n<p>My own favorites?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No. 5 &#8211; I cry during the great &#8216;swan&#8217; motif every single time I play it.<\/li>\n<li>No. 3 &#8211; Such a Haydnesque, and light piece, as Steinberg says, a &#8220;U-turn from what came before&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>No. 7 &#8211; Who knew a C major scale could be so beautifully evocative?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As for No. 6 &#8211; It is growing on me, I&#8217;m looking forward to returning to it this season.\u00a0The Oregon Symphony is <a href=\"http:\/\/tickets.orsymphony.org\/single\/eventDetail.aspx?p=2830\" target=\"_blank\">performing Sibelius&#8217; Sixth Symphony in February<\/a>, with guest conductor Robert Spano (and Joshua Bell as\u00a0violin soloist, playing the Bruch Concerto No. 1). We last performed this enigmatic symphony with Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, who described it as the most classically &#8216;Finnish&#8217; of the symphonies.<\/p>\n<p>[advanced_iframe securitykey=&#8221;d7b5f92b18e981e1f394c0812c3e4b7f0c14347c&#8221; src=&#8221;http:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/458232716\/458825435&#8243; width=&#8221;100%&#8221; height=&#8221;290&#8243; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8243; scrolling=&#8221;no&#8221; title=&#8221;NPR embedded audio player&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sy8ZW4KnFTs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JGtgJAx8IEo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You can listen to the entire series of discussions <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/deceptivecadence\/2015\/12\/08\/458232716\/finlands-finest-the-seven-symphonies-of-jean-sibelius\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Birthday, Jean Sibelius! I love the symphonies of Sibelius (with the possible exception of No. 2, and that&#8217;s only because of the endless scale patterns that annoy me to play &#8211; I love listening to it), and I have since before there was ever an inkling that I&#8217;d make music my profession. NPR has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":13958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3483,2],"tags":[3728,3727,2857,3048],"class_list":["post-13957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-journalismcriticism","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-3728","tag-birthday","tag-sibelius","tag-symphonies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/sibelius-1233768543-hero-wide-1.jpg?fit=618%2C298&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-3D7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7575,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/09\/sibelius-an-mahler\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":0},"title":"sibelius &#038; mahler","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"[In October 1907] Sibelius met the composer Gustav Mahler, who was visiting Helsinki. The two colleagues noticed that they had experienced the same phenomenon: with each new symphony both of them always lost listeners who had been captivated by the previous symphony. But they disagreed about the essence of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;appreciation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/JS_Goteborg_1915-200x306.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7566,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/06\/brittens-sea-sibelius-last-symphony-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":1},"title":"britten&#8217;s sea, sibelius&#8217; last symphony, and more","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday morning the OSO begins its rehearsals for next weekend's penultimate classical series of the 2011-2012 season. Yes, then end of our season is just over two weeks away. It's hard to believe, often, it seems to stretch into infinity around January or February, and then May is here, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;appreciation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4647,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/11\/the-hurt-locker\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":2},"title":"the hurt locker","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to keep track of pieces that are excruciating for violists to play. \u00a0There seems to be an evolving canon (a pantheon, if you will)\u00a0of works which violists seem to universally dislike playing. \u00a0Usually this is due to the physical demands of the piece. \u00a0The viola needs a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;the orchestra world&quot;","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":530,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/12\/classical-6-imix\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":3},"title":"Classical 6 iMix","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the iMix for this coming week's classical series concerts with conductor Hannu Lintu and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. The recommended Sibelius recording is from a set recorded in the 60's by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. I'd' long heard that it was a landmark recording of the complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/spacer1.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13641,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/07\/symphonic-desert-island-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":4},"title":"symphonic desert island list","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"CK Dexter Haven is one of the classical blogosphere's most respected bloggers, and he's always got something interesting to say - and lots of inside scoop on the goings on at the LA Philharmonic. This past week, Mr. CKDH was on a long drive to the Santa Barbara wine country\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;bloggers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":532,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/15\/thoughts-on-this-weeks-program\/","url_meta":{"origin":13957,"position":5},"title":"thoughts on this week&#8217;s program","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This week we're rehearsing for the Classical 6 series: Sibelius' Sixth Symphony, Haydn's D major Cello Concerto, and Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, under the direction of Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu. It's an interesting program. So far we've only rehearsed the two symphonies, but they bring surprises, both in comparison to each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;appreciation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}