2001:99A:80E:3A00:983E:7640:3CA7:5BC4: /* Second movement */

2025-06-04T12:02:04Z

Second movement

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{{Short description|Symphony in four movements by Jean Sibelius}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = Symphony No. 2
| composer = {{nowrap|[[Jean Sibelius]]}}
| image = JSibelius 1900.jpg
| image_upright = .9
| caption = The composer ({{c.|1902}})
| border = Yes
| opus = 43
| key = [[D major]]
| movements = 4
| composed = {{start date|1901}}–1902
| publisher = {{ill|Fazer & Westerlund|fi|Fazerin musiikkikauppa}} (1903){{sfn|Dahlström|2003|p=198}}{{efn|On 20 July 1905, the Helsinki-based music publisher {{ill|Fazer & Westerlund|fi|Fazerin musiikkikauppa}} ({{lang|sv|Helsingfors Nya Musikhandel|italics=no}}) sold its Sibelius holdings (the publishing rights and printing plates) to the German firm of [[Breitkopf & Härtel]].{{sfn|Dahlström|2003|p=xxiv}}}}
| duration = 46 mins.{{sfn|Dahlström|2003|pp=196–197}}
| premiere_date = {{start date|1902|03|08|df=y}}{{sfn|Dahlström|2003|p=197}}
| premiere_location = [[Helsinki]], [[Grand Duchy of Finland]]
| premiere_conductor = Jean Sibelius
| premiere_performers = [[Helsinki Philharmonic Society]]
}}

The '''Symphony No. 2''' in [[D major]], [[Opus number|Op.]] 43, is a four-[[movement (music)|movement]] work for orchestra written from 1901 to 1902 by the Finnish composer [[Jean Sibelius]].

He began writing the symphony in winter 1901 in [[Rapallo]], Italy, shortly after the successful premiere of the popular ''[[Finlandia]]''. Sibelius said, "My second symphony is a confession of the soul."<ref>{{cite web|title=About His Own Compositions|url=http://www.sibelius.fi/english/omin_sanoin/ominsanoin_17.htm|website=sibelius.fi|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

==Background and premiere==
Baron {{ill|Axel Carpelan|fi}}, who gave Sibelius' well-known [[tone poem]] ''[[Finlandia]]'' its name, wrote to the composer shortly after its successful premiere: "You have been sitting at home for quite a while, Mr. Sibelius, it is high time for you to travel. You will spend the late autumn and the winter in Italy, a country where one learns cantabile, balance and harmony, plasticity and symmetry of lines, a country where everything is beautiful – even the ugly. You remember what Italy meant for Tchaikovsky’s development and for Richard Strauss."<ref name="Oramo">{{cite web|last1=Oramo|first1=Ilkka|title=Symphony No. 2|url=http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-no-2-jean-sibelius|website=LA Phil|access-date=15 February 2016|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310040621/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-no-2-jean-sibelius|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although Baron Carpelan was penniless, he raised sufficient funds for Sibelius to stay in a mountain villa near Rapallo, Italy. Here, Sibelius jotted down the first notes to his second symphony.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Strawser|first1=Dick|title=Sibelius at 150: His 2nd Symphony|url=http://harrisburgsymphonyblog.blogspot.com/2015/11/sibelius-at-150-his-2nd-symphony.html|website=Dr. Dick's Harrisburg Symphony Blog|date=13 November 2015 |access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

More than a year after the first motifs were penned, the second symphony was premiered by the [[Helsinki Orchestral Society]] on 8 March 1902, with the composer conducting. After three sold-out performances, Sibelius made some revisions; the revised version was given its first performance by [[Armas Järnefelt]] on 10 November 1903 in [[Stockholm]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ledbetter|first1=Steven|title=Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 43|url=https://www.aspenmusicfestival.com/program_notes/view/sibelius-symphony-no.-2-in-d-major-op.-43/25937|website=Aspen Music Festival|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> [[Oskar Merikanto]] exclaimed that the premiere "exceeded even the highest expectations".<ref>{{cite web|title=Second Symphony Op. 43 (1902)|url=http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/ork_sinf_02.htm|website=sibelius.fi|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

==Reception==
While critics were divided following the symphony's premiere, the public generally admired the piece as its grandiose finale was connected by some with the struggle for [[Independence of Finland|Finland's independence]], so that it was even popularly dubbed the "Symphony of Independence", as it was written at a time of Russian sanctions on [[Finnish language]] and [[Culture of Finland|culture]]. Sibelius's reaction to this has been widely debated; some claim that he had not intended any patriotic message and that the symphony was only identified by others as a nationalist composition, while others believe that he wrote the piece with an independent Finland in mind.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D|url=http://www.classicfm.com/composers/sibelius/music/symphony-no2-d/|website=Classic FM|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> Finnish composer {{ill|Sulho Ranta|fi}} said, "There is something about this music – at least for us – that leads us to ecstasy; almost like a shaman with his magic drum."<ref name="Keller-sanfran">{{cite web|last1=Keller|first1=James M.|title=Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Opus 43|url=https://www.sfsymphony.org/Watch-Listen-Learn/Read-Program-Notes/Program-Notes/SIBELIUS-Symphony-No-2-in-D-major,-Opus-43.aspx|website=San Francisco Symphony|access-date=15 February 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401131117/https://www.sfsymphony.org/Watch-Listen-Learn/Read-Program-Notes/Program-Notes/SIBELIUS-Symphony-No-2-in-D-major,-Opus-43.aspx|archive-date=1 April 2016}}</ref>

The symphony has been called "one of the few symphonic creations of our time that point in the same direction as Beethoven’s symphonies".<ref name="Keller-sanfran" /> However, [[Virgil Thomson]] wrote in the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' that the symphony was "vulgar, self-indulgent, and provincial beyond all description".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Huizenga|first1=Tom|title=Finland's Finest: The Seven Symphonies Of Jean Sibelius|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/12/08/458232716/finlands-finest-the-seven-symphonies-of-jean-sibelius|website=NPR|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> [[Colin Davis|Sir Colin Davis]] quoted [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] for one of his recordings of the symphony with the [[London Symphony Orchestra]]:
<blockquote><poem>Grand in itself alone, but in that breach
Through which the homeless voice of waters rose
That dark deep thoroughfare, had Nature lodged
The Soul, the Imagination of the whole.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Quantrill|first1=Peter|title=Sibelius Symphony No 2; Pohjola's Daughter|url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/sibelius-symphony-no-2-pohjolas-daughter|website=Gramophone|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref></poem></blockquote>

==Structure==
{{external media|width=440px
| topic = {{noitalic|Performed by the [[San Francisco Symphony]],<br />[[Herbert Blomstedt]] conducting}}
| audio1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Lc-6T_4g8 I. Allegretto – Poco allegro – Tranquillo, ma poco a poco...]
| audio2 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01cuUqSbSBc II. Tempo andante, ma rubato – Andante sostenuto]
| audio3 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdWGQC_t0I0 III. Vivacissimo – Lento e suave – Largamente]
| audio4 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqovyC5CHlw IV. Finale (Allegro moderato)]
}}
Sibelius scored his second symphony for an orchestra consisting of standard instruments:
2 [[Western concert flute|flute]]s, 2 [[oboe]]s, 2 [[clarinet]]s, 2 [[bassoon]]s, 4 [[French horn|horns]], 3 [[trumpet]]s, 3 [[trombone]]s, [[tuba]], [[timpani]], and [[String section|strings]].

It is written in four movements:
{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman
| Allegretto – Poco allegro – Tranquillo, ma poco a poco ravvivando il tempo all'allegro – Poco largamente – Tempo I – Poco allegro (in [[D major]])
| Tempo andante, ma rubato – Poco allegro – Molto largamente – Andante sostenuto – Andante con moto ed energico – Allegro – Poco largamente – Molto largamente – Andante sostenuto – Andante con moto ed energico – Andante – Pesante (in [[D minor]])
| Vivacissimo – Lento e soave – Tempo primo – Lento e soave – (attacca) (in [[B-flat major|B{{music|b}} major]])
| Finale: Allegro moderato – Moderato assai – Meno moderato e poco a poco ravvivando il tempo – Tempo I – Largamente e pesante – Poco largamente – Molto largamente (in D major)}}

It is his longest symphony, with a duration of approximately 45 minutes.

===First movement===
Tying in with Sibelius' philosophy on the art of the symphony—he wrote that he "admired [the symphony's] severity of style and the profound logic that created an inner connection between all the motifs"<ref>{{cite book|last=Goss|first=Glenda Dawn|author-link=Glenda Goss|title=Sibelius: A Composer's Life and the Awakening of Finland|date=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=9780226304793|pages=346}}</ref>—the work grows almost organically out of a rising three-note motif heard at the opening of the work, first unstable and pastoral, then appearing in many guises throughout the entire symphony (and indeed forming the basis for most of the material), including forming the dramatic theme of the finale. More phrases are invisibly introduced, although very much related, creating a jigsaw puzzle-like effect. It is only at the climax of the movement that the full theme is heard.<ref name="Varineau">{{cite web|last1=Varineau|first1=John P.|title=Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43|url=https://www.richmondsymphony.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Notes_Sibelius_web.pdf|website=Richmond Symphony|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf|450px|page=773]]
[[File:Gallen Kallela Symposion.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Robert Kajanus]] and [[Jean Sibelius]] (two right-most people), in an 1894 painting by [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela]]]]

===Second movement===
In his villa in Rapallo, Sibelius wrote: "[[Don Juan]]. I was sitting in the dark in my castle when a stranger entered. I asked who he could be again and again – but there was no answer. I tried to make him laugh but he remained silent. At last the stranger began to sing – then Don Juan knew who it was. It was death."<ref>{{cite web|last=Keller|first=James M.|title=2013 Jan 16, 17, 18, 19 / Subscription Season / Maazel|url=http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/d02aa363-44a4-4e8b-bdd5-fea13f6dec05/fullview#page/6/mode/2up|website=NY Phil|date=16 January 2013 |access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> On the same piece of paper, he wrote the bassoon theme for the first part of the second movement, out of which a [[pizzicato]]ed string "walking bass" stems. Two months later in Florence, he drafted the second theme, with a note reading "Christus," perhaps symbolizing the death and resurrection of the movement, or even of Finland.<ref name="Oramo" /> Scholars also suggest that Sibelius modeled the second movement after [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. Nonetheless, [[Robert Kajanus]] said that the movement "strikes one as the most broken-hearted protest against all the injustice that threatens at the present time to deprive the sun of its light and our flowers of their scent."<ref>{{cite web|last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|title=Sibelius: Apparition from the Woods|url=http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/07/sibelius-chapte.html|website=The Rest is Noise|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> The movement culminates with a towering, brassy theme, following by an ethereal, mist-like motif in the divided strings.<ref name="Wise">{{AllMusic|last=Wise|first=Brian|title=Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43|class=composition|id=mc0002371344}}</ref>

[[File:Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf|450px|page=774]]

===Third movement===
An angry, restless [[scherzo]] with machine-gun figures in the strings is blistering and fast. It is followed by a slow trio section, featuring a lyrical oboe solo accompanied by the clarinets and horns. After a trumpet blast, the scherzo is played again. The trio section returns again at the end of the movement as it bridges to the final movement.<ref name="Varineau" /> Kajanus said, "The scherzo gives a picture of frenetic preparation. Everyone piles his straw on the haystack, all fibers are strained and every second seems to last an hour. One senses in the contrasting trio section with its oboe motive in [[G-flat major]] what is at stake."<ref name="Oramo" />

[[File:Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf|450px|page=775]]

===Finale===
Without pause, the final movement, toward which the rest of the symphony seems to be building, begins gloriously after finally attaining D major, with colossal, loud, regal, and triumphant themes, often drawn from the first movement of the symphony.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sibelius Symphonies|url=http://www.nottinghamphilharmonic.co.uk/sibelius-symphonies|website=Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref> Very similar to [[Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 5]], the transitional material from between the last two movements is brought back a second time so the victory of the major key can be savored anew.<ref name="Wise" /> This movement, inspired by [[Romantic music]], is "Italian music gone North."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hurwitz|first=David|author-link=David Hurwitz (music critic)|title=Sibelius: The Orchestral Works, an Owner's Manual|date=2007|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9781574671490|page=87}}</ref> Kajanus wrote that the last movement "develops towards a triumphant conclusion intended to rouse in the listener a picture of lighter and confident prospects for the future."<ref name="Keller-sanfran" />

[[File:Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf|450px|page=776]]

==Recordings==
The first recording, sponsored by the Finnish Government, was made by [[Robert Kajanus]] with an unnamed orchestra for the British [[Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia]] label in May 1930 at the [[Central Hall, Westminster]] on nine [[78 rpm]] sides. The final side included the 'Intermezzo' from the ''[[Karelia Suite]]''. For more information, ''see [[British Symphony Orchestra discography#Sib1|British Symphony Orchestra discography § Robert Kajanus]]''. Kajanus had recorded the First Symphony a week earlier. Although the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] and the [[British Symphony Orchestra]] are sometimes credited, Mark Obert-Thorn puts forward the view that the ensemble was the [[British Symphony Orchestra discography#Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society|Orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society]], "the old RPO" which served as a long-term concert and recording [[pickup group|pickup orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Kajanus conducts Sibelius • Volume 1 |website=Chandos Records | last=Obert-Thorn |first=Mark |url=https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/HH1393.pdf |others=CD booklet |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> It should not be confused with the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] founded by Sir [[Thomas Beecham]] in 1947.

[[Arturo Toscanini]] and the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] performed the symphony during broadcast concerts in 1939 and 1940 in NBC Studio 8-H; the 1940 performance was commercially released by [[RCA Victor]] in 1967 on LP, then later reissued on CD. [[EMI]] has released a CD of a concert performance by Toscanini and the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in [[Queen's Hall]]. One of the more remarkable live performances released on LP and CD was by [[Sir Thomas Beecham]] and the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in the [[Royal Festival Hall]] in 1954, during which Beecham shouted encouragement to the musicians several times.<ref>{{cite web|last=Barnett|first=Rob|title=Historical Record of the Month|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/sept04/Sibelius2Beecham.htm|publisher=MusicWeb International|access-date=5 January 2014}}</ref>

On the Saturday 5 January 2013 broadcast of [[BBC Radio 3#CD Review|BBC Radio 3's ''CD Review – Building a Library'']], music critic Erica Jeal in her survey recommended the 1995 recording by the [[London Symphony Orchestra]], conducted by [[Colin Davis]], as the best available choice.<ref>{{cite web|last=Jeal|first=Erica|title=Building a Library: Sibelius: Symphony No 2|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pmdd1|work=CD Review|publisher=BBC Radio 3|access-date=5 January 2014}}</ref>

The violinist and composer [[Anthony Collins (composer)|Anthony Collins]] recorded the symphony with many revisions{{how|date=February 2016}}, saying that "Conductors must have liberty to get performance living."<ref>{{cite web|title=Sibelius: The Complete Symphonies. London Symphony Orchestra and Anthony Collins|url=http://www.mdt.co.uk/sibelius-the-complete-symphonies-london-anthony-collins-decca-vinyl-6lps.html|website=MDT|access-date=15 February 2016|archive-date=8 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150808112111/http://www.mdt.co.uk/sibelius-the-complete-symphonies-london-anthony-collins-decca-vinyl-6lps.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In his 1935 recording with the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], [[Serge Koussevitzky]] conducted the same version that Collins used. Sibelius praised the recording, saying that Koussevitsky "performed my work with supreme mastery. I shall ever be deeply grateful to him for all that he has done for my art."<ref>{{cite web|last=Gutmann|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Gutmann (journalist)|title=Sibelius, Symphony #2|url=http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics2/sibelius.html|website=Classical Notes|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
*{{cite book|last=Dahlström|first=Fabian|author-link=:sv:Fabian Dahlström|title=Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke|trans-title=Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works|date=2003|publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel|location=Wiesbaden|language=de|isbn=3-7651-0333-0}}

==Further reading==
*Goddard, Scott (April 1931). "Sibelius's Second Symphony." ''[[Music & Letters]]'', vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 156–163.
*Kallio, Tapio (2001). "Meter in the opening of the Second Symphony." In [[Timothy L. Jackson]] and {{ill|Veijo Murtomäki|fi}}, eds., ''Sibelius Studies'' (Cambridge University Press), pp. 275–295.
*{{cite book |last=Vernon |first=David |date=2024 |title=Sun Forest Lake: The Symphonies & Tone Poems of Jean Sibelius |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Candle Row Press |isbn=978-1739659943 |ref=none}}

==External links==
*{{IMSLP|work=Symphony No.2, Op.43 (Sibelius, Jean)|cname=Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43}}

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[[Category:Symphonies by Jean Sibelius|Symphony 2]]
[[Category:1902 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in D major]]
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Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius) - Revision history

2001:99A:80E:3A00:983E:7640:3CA7:5BC4: /* Second movement */