1 Introduction: Talking Appreciatively about

Performable Works

In the notes that accompany the CD of Sibelius’s complete symphonies

played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel,

Timothy Day comments on the Second Symphony as follows:

From his modest orchestral forces, Sibelius is able to conjure up astonishingly

varied sonorities, eloquent and powerful in the Finale where he exploits

the full range of the brass instruments, or harsh and forlorn, as in the slow

movement, with thin textures and the dark colour of the lower registers of

the orchestra. Sibelius is rarely serene: the pastoral quality of the opening

Allegretto is tinged with melancholy and there is a solemnity in the triumph of

the work’s conclusion.

The first movement is a sonata-form structure. Its themes give the

impression of evolving from each other rather than presenting sharp con-

trasts, and indeed, in the recapitulation, material from the first and second

groups of the exposition is contained without strain or distortion. This

coherence adds great strength and inevitability to the movement’s predomi-

nantly sunny and relaxed mood. The second movement is a more rhapsodic

structure with a succession of beautiful themes. It begins, slightly menac-

ingly, with a single melodic line played pizzicato by cellos and double basses,

joined later by two bassoons in octaves intoning a modal lament, marked

lugubre. A series of impassioned climaxes ensue and the movement ends in a

solemn mood.

3

The Classical Paradigm II:

Appreciating Performable

Works in Performance

Philosophy of the Performing Arts , First Edition. David Davies.
© 2011 David Davies. Published 2011 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.