The Sibelius Forum

kullervopete · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:50 am Post subject: Quotes about the Fourth

'The fourth Symphony of Sibelius can be compared to a species of star, which [Physicists and Astromoners] call a white Dwarf, the substance of which is so dense and compressed that a piece the size of a shilling may weigh as much as several tons'.--Cecil Gray, Sibelius biographer.

This is a pretty good analogy of Sibelius 4. Sibelius somehow developed a kind of musical shorthand. The music is reduced to a mighty minimum, by rejecting all inessentials combined with an amazing power of suggestion, Sibelius creates worlds.--kp

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Peter Frankland

kullervopete · Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:17 am Post subject:

'If it was possible to concentrate a Wagner Opera into 10 minutes, then maybe you would come up with the first movement of the fourth Symphony'--Sir Simon Rattle.

I take with a pinch of salt various claims that the fourth is highly Wagnerian, but I can go along with Rattles remark. The pace of the first movement is almost as slow as Parsifal yet a genuine sonata form is created in the space of 10 minutes or so, with all the proper tensions perfectly distributed as in a classical symphony.--kp

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Peter Frankland