I was listening recently to Vivaldi's great work, and I was reminded of how important the changing season's were for Sibelius. What a pity that he did not compose his own 'Four Season's'.

We do have plenty of examples of seasonal inspiration in many of his works. The orchestral 'Spring Song' comes to mind and a number of songs such as 'Autumn Evening', 'The spell of springtide' opus 61 [1910] 'The coming of spring' opus 86 [1916] and the choral 'When spring once more comes to life' [1888]

Think of the piano pieces, 'Summer Song' opus 58 [1909] 'Spring Vision' opus 114 [1929] That late Suite for violin and strings contains 'Evening in spring' JS 185 [1929]

But no 'Four seasons', then I began to think how well the seasons fit into the character of Sibelius's last four great symphonies.

Number 4, 'Winter'. Dark, and gloomy as the Finnish winter, but with an inner warmth to ease the chill.

Number 5, 'Spring'. After a cool opening, a door opens revealing natures renewal, life is bursting forth and we feel a distinct spring in the step.

Number 6, 'Summer'. Bright, radiant and sunny, but as with things of beauty, the shadows lengthen.

Number 7, 'Autumn' Rich and vibrant, but tinged with a certain sadness that though nature is so wonderful, life is coming to an end.

Well I was only daydreaming, but any thoughts out there.--kullervopete.

Interesting input into a possible Sibelian "Four Seasons."

The Third, to my ears, is really an evocation of the spring. It's Sibelius's "pastrole" symphony. I know Sibbe applied no programs to his symphonies, so this is only a PERSONAL interpretation.

Everyone always brings up how much Nordic frost permeates Sibbe's output, but with works like the 3rd, Spring Song, etc., one certainly gets the picture that Sibbe was not all doom and gloom.

By the way, does anyone happen to know if Sibbe ever mentioned what his favorite season was?

I have seen somewhere that Sibelius used to get depressed during the long winters, many musical idea's would be spinning around in his head but he started to write the music down when the long dark nights had lifted.--kullervopete.

The composer Robert Simpson once remarked that 'those bred in the south cannot possibly imagine what the sun means to a Northerner. I suppose this is one reason why Nightride and sunrise is so powerful.
Winters are long and hard in Finland and when the snow covered the forests and lakes around Ainola, Sibelius's moods reflected the icy landscape. Diary entries mirror the changing seasons.
'Its snowing outside--but Spring glimmers through. Life is waking up. This life, which I love so dearly, and the fact must stamp everything I compose'.
'Spring is coming, a good time to compose. Its warm outside and winter is ending, once again their is a fragrance in the air, of the thaw of youth and of crime'.
Sibelius awaited the coming of the migrating birds and rejoiced when they arrived. 'Cranes-again my voices'.
In the summer Sibelius listened as the nightingale sang in E minor and as Autumn returned he followed the cranes as they journeyed south crying their music to the wind'. 'The sun is shining, nature in farewell colours',

Perhaps one of Sibelius most profound remarks on his attitude to life was the following 'Strange that nothing in the whole world neither in art, in literature nor even music, affects me in the same way as these Swans and Cranes and wild geese'.--kullervopete.

I have come across an interesting article on Sibelius's late Suite for violin and strings opus 117 [1929] a work that I mentioned briefly earlier in this thread. Tero-Pekka Hewell writes that Sibelius wrote the following as movement titles, 1/ Country-scenery, 2/ Evening in spring and 3/ In the summer. Most unusually, Sibelius wrote the names in English and in the clean copy he wrote heavily in pencil, and clearly in haste the Swedish words 'Far ej publiceras' [not for publication] Kenell wonders if Sibelius returned to the piece in old age. The copyists score which was located in the 1980's is complete and the work is eminently performable. Henell wonders whether Sibelius might have been toying with some idea of finishing it as a four-movement work 'The seasons' The second movement is a Spring serenade, and the third a Summer image, if the first were to represent Winter only Autumn would remain. One thing is for sure says Henell 'the score of the Suite did not disappear heavenwards in the smoke from the chimneys of Ainola, in the great bonfire during the 1940's.
I have a fine recording of the Suite with Jari Valo and the Ostrobothnian Chamber orchestra under Juha Kangas [0927 40606 2] The First UK performance was given at a UK Sibelius society concert in 1992 with Janice Graham and the Thames S. O. under Robin Page. I have this on a much treasured cassette issued by the society. This piece is perhaps the closest that Sibelius came to writing a 'Four Seasons'.--kullervopete.

I missed this thread when it started, great little idea for some fun, kullervopete! Here is my list of 4 Sibelius movements that represent each season:

Spring: Symphony No. 3, 1st movement

Summer: Tapiola*

Fall: Andante Festivo

Winter: Night ride and sunrise (obvious, I know...)
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* The choice of Tapiola for summer may surprise some, and I am aware that a good argument could be made that this is a winter piece, not a summer piece. But for me, from the opening right through to the glowing final chords, this piece portrays the vast forests when full of life and sunlight, basking in the long northern days.

TAPIOLA? Summer? How controversial!!

I would have to place TAPIOLA as a representation of the fall. When I hear the piece, I do not see any snow at all. I see a forest that is damp, murky, but no snow. And very cold. This is fall to my ears.

The whole of the 3rd Symphony is springtime.

Summer? Perhaps the 5th Symphony. There is a lot of warmth I feel with this work and I am consistantly reminded of the color yellow when I hear it.

Winter? What else but the 4th?!

I'd never thought of it, but Kurki makes a compelling case for seeing 'Tapiola' as a summer piece. The forest is certainly full of life, but not I think of the human kind!
Interesting also that Tapkaara is reminded of the colour yellow on hearing the Fifth Symphony. Levas tells us that Sibelius experienced colours as musical sounds, not merely approximations to, but actually possessing exact pitch. His favorite colour was a clear green. Sibelius said it was somewhere between d and e flat. He said that this colour had more of yellow than blue in it, and was not to be found anywhere in hie environment. He had only seen it, and then seldom, in the sky. Once after listening to Tapiola in Beechams recording, Sibelius went to the window and looked awhile at the evening sky. 'all colours seem different to me now, after hearing Tapiola/, he said.--kullervopete.

I recently read about all of that in Levas's book. I was surprised to hear that Sibelius's favorite color is (clear) green. My favorite color is green too, but I suppose it would probably be darker than Sibelius's favorite.

I have a little personal trouble making a summer connection to TAPIOLA, but it's all a matter of personal opinion. But the fact that TAPIOLA "teems with life" makes a good argument that it could be representitive of the summer.

I, too, experience many colors when I listen to music. TAPIOLA is grey with furtive splashes of blue. Again, this is an evocation of the fall for me.

For the record, my favourite colours are grey and black, which should come as no surprise to anyone, judging from the forum's colour scheme.

Guess what Kurki, after green, I too, love grey and black. Most of the cloths I buy tend to be dark green, black or grey. My friends give me a hard time and tell me I should be more "colorful."

I LOVE the colors of this forum. I always thought it looked great. On my Ifukube website, I think my color preferences show themselves with some amount of obviousness.