Andante Festivo
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''Andante Festivo'' () is a single-
movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
composition by
Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...
, originally scored for
string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
in 1922. In 1938, the composer rescored the piece for
string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...
and
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
. On 1 January 1939 Sibelius conducted his composition in a live worldwide broadcast, making it the only sound document of him interpreting his own music.


History

Walter Parviainen requested a
cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...
from Sibelius to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the
Säynätsalo Säynätsalo is a former municipality in Finland and a part of Jyväskylä. As of November 2010 its population was 3,340. Säynätsalo municipality consisted of islands of Säynätsalo and Lehtisaari and also a part of Muuratsalo island. All of t ...
sawmills before Christmas of 1922. Sibelius wrote instead a composition for a
string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
, to become ''Andante Festivo''. It was possibly based on older projects, such as a planned
oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...
''Marjatta'' from the 1900s. When Riitta Sibelius, a niece of the composer, got married in 1929, ''Andante Festivo'' was performed by two string quartets, possibly with modifications. Sibelius listened to the radio frequently in the 1930s. He thought about composing for the radio in a different way, to accommodate the distortions created by the loudspeakers of the time. When
Olin Downes Edwin Olin Downes, better known as Olin Downes (January 27, 1886 – August 22, 1955), was an American music critic, known as "Sibelius's Apostle" for his championship of the music of Jean Sibelius. As critic of ''The New York Times'', he ex ...
, a critic of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', requested him to "conduct a piece of music as Finland's greeting to the world in a radio broadcast to celebrate the New York World Exhibition", he tried the concept by adapting the former string quartet. Full-throated and hymnic, this piece of work is constructed as a smooth, continuous stream of similar melodic phrases that flow into and out of each other. Sibelius was a violinist himself and knew how to compose for strings. A "seamless repeated melody" is played by the strings and answered in the last four bars by the timpani, in an almost religious statement in a world before a Second World War. The version for strings and timpani was first performed in a direct broadcast on 1 January 1939 by the
Radio Orchestra A radio orchestra (or broadcast orchestra) is an orchestra employed by a radio network (and sometimes television networks) in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music for various shows on the network. In ...
conducted by the composer, as the only recorded example of the composer interpreting one of his own works. His maintained a slow tempo professionally, with "unforced
rubato Tempo rubato (, , ; 'free in the presentation', literally ) is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor. Rub ...
", creating a solemn, singing string sound. He sometimes took liberty with the tempo markings in the score (and altered the first double bass entries to a C, not a G.) A 2015 collection of recordings of music for orchestra by Sibelius, played by the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (in Finnish: ; in Swedish: ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic ...
conducted by
Leif Segerstam Leif Selim Segerstam ( , ; born 2 March 1944) is a Finnish conductor, composer, violinist, violist and pianist, especially known for writing 350 symphonies as of August 2022, along with other works in his extensive oeuvre. Segerstam has condu ...
, and recorded between 1995 and 2007, includes the recording of ''Andante Festivo'' from the archives of the
Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...
and contrasts it to works including the
Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
and the Second Symphony. The recording conducted by Sibelius is also part of a collection of historic performances from 1928 to 1948, notably recordings of the Columbia Gramophone Company (later
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
) from the 1930s, when
Robert Kajanus Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 – 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1882, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Finland's first professional orchestra. As a conductor, he was also a notable champion and in ...
conducted the symphonies and
tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
s, many of which he had premiered. The recording of ''Andante Festivo'' was Sibelius's last performance as a conductor. The work was played at his funeral.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Compositions for string orchestra Compositions by Jean Sibelius 1922 compositions