JEAN SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 (1901-02)
The Second Symphony begins in a cheerful, pastoral mood, but the relaxed progress breaks into a series of passages that seem not yet to have reconciled their positions as neighbors. Sibelius once wrote of this movement, “It is as if the Almighty had thrown down the pieces of a mosaic for heaven’s floor and asked me to put them together.” What we first encounter as separate “mosaic pieces” gradually comes into focus as one focused statement, with the hard edges joined together in crisp seams. Sibelius disavowed any political underpinnings in the Second Symphony, but that did not stop the Finnish people from embracing it as an anthem of their struggle after the Helsinki premiere in 1902. Much of the perceived “protest” aspect of the music traces to the second movement, with its trudging pizzicato, lugubrious bassoon melody and impassioned climaxes. The scherzo, a blur of perpetual-motion string figures and hovering woodwind lines, continues the sense of struggle. As in the preceding slow movement, a solo timpani signals a darkening of the mood, this time leading to the contrasting trio section and its haunting oboe melody. (Sibelius managed to make even the major-key music here sound sad, at least to this listener’s ear.) This slow material returns a second time and builds into something new, which turns out to be the start of the finale, its triumphant entrance supported by martial blasts from the low brass and timpani. As in the first movement, there is a sense of disconnected sound worlds coming together—for instance, a soaring string melody, a trumpet fanfare and a
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It was also around 1900 that Sibelius’ music began appearing in concert halls around Europe, satisfying the composer’s long-held ambition to be recognized on an international stage, and not just as a Finn. He was particularly pleased in 1901 to receive a kind word from Richard Strauss, who was just a year older than Sibelius but already a star. Sibelius’ plan around that time for a series of four tone poems related to the Don Juan legend demonstrated Strauss’ influence, but the work he began sketching in Italy and completed in Helsinki ultimately took shape as his Symphony No. 2.
Sibelius 2
Jean Sibelius was Finland’s first and greatest musical hero. By the turn of the 20th century, he was hailed at home for the First Symphony and the patriotic tone poem Finlandia, works that gave voice to a burgeoning national identity, and which fueled a political groundswell moving toward independence from Russia. Sibelius forged his Finnish sound in part from the fivenote modes and hypnotic rhythms of the Kalevala, an ancient folk poem that preserved Finnish mythology through oral tradition. He circulated with leading intellectuals in Helsinki—often drinking, smoking and spending far too much in the process—and did his part to foment change with patriotic songs and populist protest pieces.