3 Sketches From Sibelius "Lost" 8th Symphony- World Premiere

In October 2011, the Helsinki Philharmonic, under John Storgaards, played, for the first time, three sketches from the legendary "lost" Eighth Symphony of the great Finnish conductor Jean Sibelius.

Long though destroyed in a fireplace by the conductor himself in 1945, these sketches -- and over 800 pages of unclassified symphonic scores by the great composer, were handed over by his family to the University of Helsinki and the National Library of Finland in 1982.

This information, just made public to the English speaking world, has sent shockwaves through classical musicologists.

This is not a reconstruction. These are the actual sketches and orchestration from Sibelius original manuscript. At a minimum, these are actual works written by the great conductor after he wrote Tapiola, his last great orchestrated work and when we know he was working on the Eighth Symphony. However, some scholars now feel it is only a matter of time before we are able to reconstruct the entire symphony from his sketches.

If you are dumbfounded and do not believe what you are seeing and hearing here, here are some links. If this is true this is the greatest find of lost music in the past 100 years.

Link for more information:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Is+this+the+sound+of+Sibeliuss+lost+Eighth+S...

Gramophone Article: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/updated-helsinki-philharmoni...

BBC Podcast: Excellent. Listen to Norman Lebrecht discuss the story of finding these sketches:
http://soundcloud.com/bbcintune/norman-lebrecht-on-sibelius-8

Category:

Music

Tags:

• World Premiere (album)
• ibelius
• classical music

[schlesmail]

Good job on this, Eddi! Once again, as you stated in your explanatory info, these may or may not be fragments of the Eighth Symphony at some stage of composition. Still, they're fascinating to listen to & definitely show a departure in Sibelius' creative direction. It appears the Eighth was supposed to be a choral symphony. Compare these fragments with Surusoitto (Funeral Music), Op. 111b (keyword search YouTube for "Sibelius Two Pieces.wmv"--Surusoitto starts at 6:47).

[eddihaskell]

@schlesmail The Funeral Music is supposedly based on the 8th Symphony also. The words "8th Symphony" or annotation to this was written on the back of some of these pages, so claiming these are sketches from the 8th is more than speculation. In addition, we know that Sibelius was working on one major piece of music -- the 8th -- the period from when these sketches were discovered. Consider it a probability of 95% these are sketches from the 8th. Listen to the BBC podcast on this for more inf

[scottgilesmusic]

Amazing! I want to see the score. I want the CD! I want the DVD!! I want to immerse myself deeply and wholly into this music!!!

[eddihaskell]

@scottgilesmusic We are going to have to wait a very long time for a reconstruction of the entire 8th to appear, if it ever will, unless a more complete and identifiable manuscript is found, which is entirely within the realm of possibility. It took 80 years for these sketches to emerge; it might be another 80 until much more information is found.

In the meantime let me suggest you listen to Sibelius 6 and 7 Symphonies along with his tone poem Tapiola, which is actually a symphonic work.

[Worldswithoutend]

A creator may be wrong about the value of this own work.

[Numboss]

Seeing as Sibelius chose to negate any possibility of the world hearing his 8th, right up to his death, one wonders if there is an ethical aspect to trying to piece together the aborted symphony. Shouldn't we respect his decision, and just leave the dead symphony in its grave?

These newly discovered fragments are fascinating, and I'm as intrigued as the next guy; but it's futile to think that one day a true Sibelius 8th will be resurrected. The symphonies end at 7. Sibelius wanted it that way.

[SausageDoc]

the amount of noise reduction applied makes it unlistenable

[cambridgeMandarin]

"If this is true this is the greatest find of lost music in the past 100 years." Not even slightly exaggerated. The first fragment is beyond words.