The middle movement of SibeliusвЂ™ Third Symphony has the beautiful simplicity of a folk song.

The composer conducted the orchestra himself. Though they sound nothing alike, together they account for my initial love of music. He is also an indispensable figure in Finnish music history. The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) had a unique and very powerful style. This album offers two of Latvian composer Peteris VasksвЂ™ most important large-scale works, his Third Symphony (2004-2005) and his Cello Concerto (1993-1994). SibeliusвЂ™ seven symphonies form the backbone of his oeuvre. Although slighter and briefer than the Second Symphony, the Third is notable for a greater diversity in expres-sional means coupled with вЂ¦ En saga, Op. 82 was undertaken as a commission to celebrate the composer's fiftieth birthday. Performances of Notes on Light with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and New World Symphony followed. 2 integrates the concertante principle even more thoroughly: In the Bax-like Epilogue of the Third Movement (Tempestoso вЂ“ ma non troppo allegro), for example, Tubin reduces his large orchestra to a chamber ensemble, dominated by piano and violin, and sounding as if from an increasing distance. His 'Manhattan Trilogy' is a characteristically radiant concerto for orchestra. The Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) famously insisted on periods of prolonged silence when he was working. Oramo gets playing of real bite and energy in the third movement of the First Symphony, an there is never any doubting his commitment, or that of his players, to Kokkonen's cause. The third movement scherzo seems to rush towards the triumphant finale whose heroic, stirring music left the Finnish audience in no doubt that Sibelius had composed the soundtrack for independence. Composing music may be the loneliest of artistic pursuits. The movement has three large sections, the third of which recaps the first so that the structure is an A B A form. It is a teaser of the spring seasonвЂ™s Grande Finale: OramoвЂ™s final concerts as chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra will be an in-depth journey through Jean SibeliusвЂ™ work, including all seven symphonies in chronological order. Louis Symphony (October 14-16), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (October 21-23), and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (October 29-30). In October, Lintu will be performing with the St. George Antheil (1900вЂ“1959), American composer of 10 symphonies, of which six are numbered (No.Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, the former Danish, the latter Finnish, both owe much to the Viennese symphonists but acquired individual styles that resulted in new conceptions of symphonic form. While his first two symphonies, composed in 19, were single-movement works, his third Symphony utilizes a multi-movement form. Never in any sym- phony did the composer hammer away so incessantly at one single theme as he did in the short-short-short-long rhythmic motto that dominates the first movement of the Fifth Symphony. The third movementвЂ™s vigorously dancelike melodic character, by contrast, suggests the spirit and rhythmic ingenuity of a typical Bruckner scherzo.

The music shows the composer experimenting with the Classical concerto form and points the way toward his later innovations.

Sibelius 5 finale