My vote lands soundly in the Forest of Tapiola.

Actually, although the 5th Symphony is my favourite Sibelius piece, I believe Tapiola is the best piece that he wrote, if you can accept this distiction.

How similiar do you think Symphony No. 8 would have been to Tapiola?

Seeing as, after No. 7 his tendency towards unified movements paralleled some of his tone poems, this may suggest how his 8th may have sounded.

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One can only wonder. But if he was using similar techniques as in #7 and Tapiola in writing the 8th symphony, you would think he would have finished the piece, given the brevity and concision of the aforementioned works.

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Well, we have 2 for Tapiola... anyone out there a hardcore Finlandia fan?

Pohjolas dauhter is my favourite. Reasons... Ummm none!

Nice choice.

I think Pohjola's daughter is probably under-represented outside of Finland simply because people don't know the story well enough.

The obvious parallel that comes to my mind is Smetana's Sarka. Purely as tone poem that seeks to describe something, I think Sarka is better than Vltava - But the story is so esoteric that it is often passed off as "one of those legends" outside of the Czech Republic.

Arenan, would you care to tell us the story of Pohjola's Daughter?

Pohjolan tytär (Pohjolas Daughter) is based on a episode in the Kalevala where Väinämöinen tries in vain to reach the Daughter of Pohjola, who is sitting in the sky clothed in white and weaving a fabric of gold (instrumentionally I see Harp in here).However,here - as Indeed in Sibelius's other works-there is no specific illustrative programme as in many Strauss's tone poems;instead, the music reflects the moods of the narrative.
(Text by Kimmo Korhonen, a bit altered by myself)

I think that understanding the moods is a key to open this piece. It has the savagery landscape of the Tapiola-like creatures.Daughter is mentioned to be a very skinny creature: "lihan läpi luu näkyy, luun läpi yin näkyy" ("through the skin the bone shines,Through the bone the vains shine" My translation. Nevermind).And the Kalevala legend does not show her as a kind person, you can hear the flutes trilling... I bet that is a mocking laughter.

Best version so far on my opinion: Segerstam/Helsinki Philharmonic out on Ondine.

'legends' for me, and i am a 'finlandia' fan.

dj

I voted for Pohjola's Daughter, but I also think The Swan of Tuonela is a favorite. Why is it not listed separately in the list? Is it not considered that much of a favorite or what?

I lot of times I think my favorites are due to when and where I first heard them. As we all know, we are more impressionable when we are younger and often our favorites get cemented in our psyche early on. Would you agree? I tend to go more on feeling than analyisis though I like reading and hearing in-depth technical analysis of all kinds of music.

Badger

The Swan of Tuonela is in the Legends suite, or Lemminkainen Suite, as it is also known. I figured if it was someone's favourite, they would vote for Legends, it didn't occur to me to list it seperately to avoid confusion... maybe I should have. Oh well. As the poll is already running, I will leave it like this.

OK. That explains it. I always think of it as separate.

Badger

Quite naturally, Badger.

It would be interesting to know the ratio of performances of The Swan alone vs. performances of the entire suite.

Any guesses?

10:1 maybe?

After posting here, I pulled out my copy of The Swan of Tuonela last night for the first time in a long while. I have the recording by Jarvi/Goteborg on BIS from 1985 (this is a cycle I've mentioned before). The Swan is truley beautiful; romantic, slow, and pretty. It has some emotional peaks, but no big bombastic climaxes. That's fine.

I listened to several other parts of the Lemmenkainen Suite and "rediscovered" them too. These recordings really bring out the drama of the story to me.

Now, I'll have to go back and listen to some of the other Tone Poems.

Badger

Badger wrote:

The Swan is truley beautiful; It has some emotional peaks, but no big bombastic climaxes.

For me, the climax of this piece (a non-bombastic climax, of course) is the entrance of the trombone tuplet chords, followed by the triplet melody in unison in the strings.

Up to this point, this piece is about restraint and tension and harmonic ambiguity. This A minor statement, which would seem tame and understated in any other context, stands out like a deep and still expanse of water in The Swan.

Yes, that's a good description of this beautiful piece.

Kurkikohtaus wrote:

Quite naturally, Badger. It would be interesting to know the ratio of performances of The Swan alone vs. performances of the entire suite. Any guesses? 10:1 maybe?

i knew of 'the swan of tuonela' about 20 years before i knew of the 'four legends'.

dj

Well, I voted for Pohjola's Daughter just now, but it was difficult to pass over the Bard, which is also very nice. But this was about favorites, and Pohjola's Daughter has always been that.

I'll claim, to assuage my guilt, that the Bard is better, how's that? (It is, after all, the closest thing to symphony number 4, which is as good as it gets...)

some guy wrote:

... (the Bard) ... It is, after all, the closest thing to symphony number 4, which is as good as it gets.

Indeed, the Bard's economy or gesture and getting the most out of so little content is very reminiscent of Symphony number 4. There is however the case of those one or two insanely syncopated bars (don't have my score here... will edit later with specific numbers) that as a conductor, I simply cannot imagine rehearsing an getting them together!

Kurki, you have just set yourself a challenge! In my experience the syncopations normally turn out better than expected (the players have to concentrate) but the harp needs to be very carefully tuned, perhaps more so than usual, otherwise it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Let us know when you programme it!

Strange that nobody has yet voted for 'Nightride and Sunrise', this great piece seems to me to embody all Sibs finest attributes in which he describes a solitary figure riding alone at night amid desolate nature, Tapio is lurking in the shadows. But as the dawn breaks, his spirit lifts and we experience the Nordic sunrise, radiant and glorious. For me the greatest sunrise in music and I include Ravel.--kullervopete.

Tapiola is definitely my favorite one. It's just the whole atmosphere surrounding it, etc., that make it so intense. Though I am not quite so experienced a Sibelius listener as I'd like to be...