Sibelius - Symphony No.4 - 1st. movement

[SymphonicFreak1]

*melancholic

[SymphonicFreak1]

Amazing song, kinda melencholic, but that's one of the things that make the song so beautiful

[fuckthepainawayxo]

i'm sorry but the main image is so creepy I had to scroll down the page... eeep

[P3arlJang]

@fuckthepainawayxo But that's my favorite!!!

[jazzmunky]

@fuckthepainawayxo hahaha you're right!

[Ligmanke]

... MEDITACIÓN...

[mbbutler1s]

Hooray for the Locrian mode!!!

[leoalpiano]

@mbbutler1s The darkest of greek modes. Locrian! Wow!

[volk410]

At 2:57 is the same half-diminished chord (albeit 2 octaves higher) that appears in the 2nd symphony, where it resolves to D minor. Here it resolves to F# major. This is but one paltry example of the incredible richness that Sibelius' music contains. Alex Ross' portrayal of Sibelius in his book, "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century," provides food for thought that maybe it's Sibelius, and not Schoenberg or Stravinsky or Shostakovich, who was truly the most modern of composers.

[gymnopedies13]

@volk410

We jazzers in hear that chord you mentioned not only as F#-7b5, but also can be heard as D dominant 9 with the root cancelled out. :) Play the same cadence but put a low D on the first chord and you've got a nice jazz cadence. Hahaha.

[m06een00]

I love this menacing, doom-sounding piece

[shredftw]

It's nice to finally see a bunch of comments that aren't 12 year old kids trolling!!

[Yorkmackem]

I think its important to understand the historical context in which this piece was written - Sibelius had just been diagnosed with throat cancer and he deliberately set out to write a symphony which was more daring harmonically than anything he'd done before. The stark ending is indicative of his mindset at the time and after the first performance the piece was nicknamed the "Barkbrod" symphony, after a period in Finnish history when people were so hungry they ate the bark from the trees.

[EngelbertEdelholz]

If there ever was a man foolish enough to say that despair cannot be sublime, by the time this symphony hits 1 minute and 10 seconds he has been proven wrong.

[Arktokosmos]

This symphony and especially the 1st movement - is fascinating and frightening at the same time. Sibelius has expressed the depths of a human soul, the depths of human existence with this piece of music. Like an arctic landscape - emerging before the eyes of a lone wanderer ...

[Geetarmann]

This is a wonderful video of one of my favorite symphonies! Thank you very much for posting this! I went looking for this tonight and never imagined I'd find something as great as this! Thanks for such a great recording and video! My evening is made!

[curlyman217]

what a truly novel, organic work! i absolutely love this.

[PicktheRareFlower2]

Karajan said : " Together with the Brahms 4th and the Mahler 6th ,this symphony concludes in total disaster and for me are the greatest i know "........

[mobershan]

Does anyone know where or how a DVD of this can be purchased? I cannot find it on Amazon.com or anywhere!

[tthorfinnn]

This has been one of my intimate favorite symphonies of all time. I appreciate the version with Karajan, and this one too. both are essential.

[robotypist]

BEAUTIFUL PIECE - THANKS FOR POSTING.

salonen is a JOY to watch. he's so passionate about Sibelius. anyone have him conducting sibelius 2?

[Napoleontas]

A GREAT FINNISH NATIONALIST

[23062001805616]

Esa-Pekka is one fine Conductor. Who couldn't like this music? I love it!

[SuperMovieFan85]

@23062001805616  You said it! Esa-Pekka Salonen is a

fine conductor. And the music he conducted? Amazing!

[rogybra]

:-)

[yourforte]

So beautiful.

[manhattanvor]

This opens in the strings with 1/8,2/8,3/8 4 and 5/8. This score is in 4/4. I wanted to see if he Salonen tried it in 4 or 8. Four would be damned hard to communicate - that's the point! This piece scared even von Karajan. What do we see? The first shot is the underside of a bass or cello bowing. Oye! Then we see a pic of Sibelius wondering what beat is being used!! Oye!! This is not artistic editing and directing. It is stupid and amateurish. Salonen shouldn't have approved it!

[fiawlty]

Oh get off your high horse and enjoy this amazing interprettion of this totally sublime music. For God's sake!

[manhattanvor]

@fiawlty flawlty as in "Towers"? I'll do my best to enjoy this stunning, earth shattering, overwhelming, beyond the pale, save me lord INTERPRETTION!

[fiawlty]

@manhattanvor Do you play a lot of trivial pursuit? ;-)

[r5cpt]

This is captivating, magic music. The cellos are so sad! But Sibelius resolves to pull you out of depression in the later part of the movement, with the glorious brasses! Once the brasses break the wall of sadness with an impetus, the violins shily come along adding more light. Still, the double-basses and cellos give it a darker tinge at the end.

[manhattanvor]

I get your idea - I'm not trying to be contentious. But you should study the score of this work if you study no other. It is a gold mine of surprises and what has been described as "icy crags" or the "northern lights" is nothing of the sort. This is a piece that is taking chromatic and post romantic music to task. Note its barely 20 minutes long! Not exactly Mahler. The last movement is one of the great surprises in all of 20th century music.

[r5cpt]

You're not contentious.

My ex-wife and I really couldn't see eye to eye with regards to Sibelius, especially his symphonies, which I think are some of the finest orchestral work ever composed. My ex just didn't like Sibelius at all. But she is the pro (violinist) and I'm just a jack with a liking for classical music. Years ago there was a orchestra director competition in Helsinki, and Sibelius' symphonies were obligatory material for the semis and final. Better directed Sibelius I never heard.

[telephilia]

This symphony was never written with the intent to delight and entertain. Nevertheless its spareness and desolation becomes darkly beautiful upon repeated listening.

[legionsofalbion]

Sibelius himself said that he had "plunged the very depths of his own soul" with this wonderfully earthy piece.

The continual use of the augumented 4th interval in this 1st movement is remarkable. You'd think it would become "dated" after a while but he resolves the dischord in so many ways it works wonderfully. I like your phrase "darkly beautiful" - spot on!

[spacepatrolman]

@legionsofalbion This piece of music was used as the theme for the tv production of requeim for a heavy weight by rod serling

[SuperMovieFan85]

@legionsofalbion I completely agreed with your great comment.

[ilkinond]

I don't think there is much of Shostakovich in anything Sibelius wrote. Very different composers.

[SorgenkindDesLebens]

Tell me folks, isn't there someting Shostakoviichian in it? I do know that Sibelius is 40 years elder, but....? What do you think?

[HelveteKeiser]

really,if you want to believe me,I was listening to it and I thought about that,having listened to Shostakovich's 8th two days ago.And when the movement ended the first thing that I read was...this ! :P

[spacepatrolman]

When the brass comes in at 2:32 shostakovich was a brassy composer finland is close to the border of russia and people think sibelius first symphony is influenced by tschycovsky .

[SorgenkindDesLebens]

It's not only the first symphony that shows the tschaikowsky influence - but that does not have anything to do with shostakovich; I didn't mean this "brassy" sound. It's this sparse and gloomy orchestration, maybe the chords too.

[ezydriver1]

I heard this symphony for the first time in my life tonight and the first thing word that hit me was "Shostakovich".

[SorgenkindDesLebens]

It's the entrance of the Cello in 00:34 in the first place, isn't it ;-) Maybe like the Nocturne in the First Violin Concerto of DSCH.

[Bitterblogger]

Just heard this 5/22/09 with the San Francisco Symphony. Austere, and yet enchanting at times. A dim, sputtering flashlight in a cave.

[schlesmail]

Sibelius' tone poem The Bard, Op. 64, is now on YouTube. Written at about the same time as this symphony (they have consecutive opus numbers), The Bard has the same kind of spare, angular texture as the Fourth Symphony. In fact, I've always felt that The Bard is to the other tone poems what the Fourth is to the other symphonies.

[BurnTheStage89]

omg. I love the conductor. And I love Sibelius for this piece. while I love Romanze, this is just so amazing.

[DarkRaimundo]

One of my favourite symphonies!

Thanks for posting!

[potn00dles]

I'm fairly n00bish when it comes to classical music but if anyone could recommend some lesser known composers who've made dark stuff like this that would be awesome. Sibelus/Vaughan Williams/Holst/Liszt are so badass. ;>

[BOARBIG]

lesser known composers? Well, try Galina Ustvoskaya and Allan Pettersson, those composers wrote very dark stuff.

[potn00dles]

I've got Pettersson's 5th symphony and it's pretty good. I'll check out Ustvoskaya , cheers.

[muesk3]

Sergei Rachmaninoff, though he doesn't fit the description of lesser known. Maybe Rued Langgaard, from what I heard, his symphonies are rather 'dark' at times.

[ggbroad134]

remember the reasons for him writting the piece and then feel the emotions

[hellomynameis1000]

around 1:34 the music sounds very similar to "This Land" from the Lion King.

[spacepatrolman]

The part at 3:00 was used as the theme for the U S TV production of Requiem For A Heavy Weight written by Rod Serling starring Jack Palance thats Palance not Pal Lance.

[michaelturton]

Thanks! I love this symphony and cursed, i lost both my versions of it.

Michael

[schlesmail]

Deliciously dark & jarringly angular, but with moments of stark majesty & sublime emotion, this is not a symphony one necessarily enjoys listening to. And yet . . .

[pviola314]

i beg to differ, because of it's angularity it gives it shape. This is his masterwork. A real drama from beginning to finish, ending leaving you wondering where you are