It seems like the whole classical world is going heavily in for Scandinavian music lately. On the radio, Ive heard all- or almost-all-Scandinavian concerts conducted by Osmo Vänskä and Essa Pekka Salonen in the last week, and elsewhere we seem to be getting more than the usual share of Grieg. Is it, like, Scandinavia's 500 millionth anniversary or something?
Anyway, a few months ago I went to UMCP's Concerto Competition finals, where I heard Sibelius's Violin Concerto for the first time. A number of things impressed me about this. First, it was being performed by a juicy hot Korean young thang; if I had been a judge, I would have voted for her just to get another chance to see her juicy (did I already say that?) bod up on stage again.
Second, I was surprised by how much I liked the concerto. I don't on the whole like Sibelius too much. I love the Valse Triste, and I like the Mahler's-1st-style parts of the 3rd Symphony, but so much of his symphonic oeuvre is just incomprehensible, dark, drawn-out, nothing to grab on to. But this is quite listenable, light in parts, meaty in others.
I think I was going to say something else about this first encounter with the Sibelius concerto, but maybe the other interesting things don't apply to this event. Anyway, last night I heard it for what AFAIK is the third time total in my life, yet it seems totally familiar. The second movement, in particular, sounded familiar, and if I had heard it in isolation, I would definitely have taken it for Debussy; the opening has a very Afternoon of a Faun feel. I must have heard this a lot more than I realize.
I woke up this morning with a couple of parts of the last movement in my head. Again, weird for such limited exposure.
Posted by Bob at July 28, 2005 10:50 AM | Monthly Archive