Do all-Sibelius programs work? 2007 is a Sibelius year, so I assume a few orchestras will give it a try...

My orchestra is playing the following program in April 2007:

Romance for Strings
Symphony No. 7
Intermission
Violin Concerto

The orchestra is rather smallish, playing the 1st two symphonies is a little out of our scope. I am introducing Sibelius here to an orchestra and audience who really only know Finlandia and the Violin Concerto. We have already played No. 3, so I thought 7 would be a good next step, given our size.

Any others?

If you play No. 5, then the concerto can go before the intermission. Although not as technically difficult, No. 7 may be "too much" Sibelius for this audience. I mean, that ending of 7, aaaaahhhh. But to an audience no. 5 ends and it's Wow.

Unless of course you let the ending of The 7th rip and burn like Maazel... That will knock the blue wigs right off the grannies' heads in the front row.

Kurkikohtaus: You have any 5 stringed/extension doublebasses in your orchestra? If they are strong you could fix the score a bit..

Yes, we have one, the principal bass, and yes, I have thought about this in several places.

I will ask him to play the piece as written and then I will make a decision after the first rehearsal.

...

Hahah! That was from my friends fingers.. Never let your computer and your account unsupervised when drinking whisky and listening Sibelius with your friends!

edit: "my" previous post which seems to have luckily disappeared!

To return to Kurkikohtaus's all Sibelius concert last April, this was of course a most welcome celebration of the masters music. ' All Sibelius' programmes do work of course, particuarly with Sibelius enthusiasts! but it is unusual to finnish a concert with the Violin concerto unless it is something like the Sibelius violin competition! Normal protacol would be to have the more substantial seventh symphony to close the concert.
Unfortunatly this is not the case with the fourth symphony. Having had the courage to programme this forbiding work, conductors and planners should also have the courage to place it last in the concert. I am well aware of why they invariably do not--they want the public to leave the concert on a high with something more up beat and supposedly optimistic! but when we listen to Sibelius four, after the final dogged chords of Aminor--what else is there left to say? --kullervopete.

kullervopete wrote:

... but it is unusual to finnish a concert with the Violin concerto unless it is something like the Sibelius violin competition! Normal protacol would be to have the more substantial seventh symphony to close the concert.

I agree with you, of course. I did it this way for the same reasons you mentioned when discussing the 4th Symphony. Not that the 7th is not optimistic, but it still may leave the average concert-goer in the cold. Especially in our little spa-town, where I am very slowly introducing Sibelius to our public, who are much more used to walzes by Strauss Jr.

What I did do, however, was hold a pre-concert presentation about the 7th Symphony, where the attendees all received an on-paper summary of the themes and form, accompanied by my charming anecdotes and plucking-out of a few themes at the keyboard. About 40-50 people attended the presentation and then received the piece warmly, but I still think I made the right choice in our specific context by putting the Violin Concerto in the 2nd half.

Yes, I do take your point in placing the concerto last and the pre-concert talk was a nice touch. I suppose really that some of us seasoned Sibelians should pause and reflect that some people may be hearing these works for the first time in their lives and so the violin concerto may well resonate more easily in their minds when they leave the concert. To digress a moment, I have noticed in the last few years a greater readiness on the part of conductors and programme planners to include a more diverse range of composers in concert, forty years ago Bartok would never have been paired with Sibelius and those two great polar opposites Mahler and Sibelius were absolutely unlikely bed fellows, but now they are programmed together surprisingly frequently. Oh I have just remembered that I am planning a piece on these two so I wont digress any further.--kullervopete.

Our local orchestra did the violin concerto, Finlandia, and the second symphony. Well... at least I found out how well they were written. That experience is posted in the "Sibelian Disasters" board here.

EDIT: Make no mistake, the program, too, was good. In fact, it was excellent, and I would gladly hear the very same program with a good orchestra.

kullervopete wrote:

... but it is unusual to finnish a concert with the Violin concerto unless it is something like the Sibelius violin competition! Normal protacol would be to have the more substantial seventh symphony to close the concert.

I went to a concert a month ago that finnished with that concerto. The programme was an all-concerto programme though, but I think the Sibelius concerto is a good way to end a concert. The audience (including me) were really happy anyway.

Sorry for my (once again!) late reply. Actually, I don't think I was on this forum when this thread started. Just consider these my programs for 2015 ('Tis comin' up, you know)!

I would rather end a concert with something like the Seventh or Second Symphony. (forgive my not immediately thinking of the Fifth; I've never been particularly fond of it. I'll just listen to it more )

That said, I would probably begin a Sibelius program with the Third. I just like it too much not to include it. Then maybe something like Finlandia or a tone poem like that... I don't know exactly how long a usual concert would run.

Yes, yes, yes - this is an important one and I believe we should all give it very serious thought:
2015 is coming soon!
It is by no means too soon to consider how to celebrate Sib@150 !!

Oh! Maybe:


Finlandia
Violin Concerto

intermission

Karelia Suite? (I initially thought Tapiola, but that seems a bit much late Sibelius...)
Symphony No. 7


The Seventh seems a bit problematic for me to place (but, then again, I'm not a conductor... yet...).