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Program Notes

Tonight’s concert, Mysteries of the Heart, is a real sonic snapshot in time. The three musical
selections on this program premiered within 17 months of each other at the turn-of-the-last-century,
1899 — 1900. Although from three different countries (Finland, England and the United States), they
all have one overarching trait in common. As culminating musical examples of the Romantic era,
each composer conveys unbridled emotion in their own way, unleashing the power of the symphony
orchestra on you in the process. This music, by design, wears its heart on its sleeve — if it had a
sleeve, of course. Enjoy!

-- Steven Karidoyanes
The following program notes are copyright Susan Halpern, 2022.

Finlandia, Tone Poem, op. 26 Jean Sibelius
(1865 — 1957)

Sibelius is one of the few composers from Scandinavia who became a musical figure of worldwide
renown. There was a time when serious critics, especially in England and the United States,
described his seven symphonies in terms usually reserved for Beethoven and Brahms, but a later
generation accorded him a different stature, placing him among the finest national composers of
Europe: Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Grieg, for example.

The old idea of Sibelius as a solitary figure, alone and separate from Europe on the distant Karelian
peninsula, was never correct. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was published in Leipzig. He
made concert tours to the principal cities of Europe and went to England, where his works were
very popular. He taught for a while at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and was
awarded an honorary degree by Yale University. He was unquestionably a cosmopolitan musician
and an international figure.

Toward the end of the 19th century, Russian rule in Finland, which had been relatively liberal, suddenly
turned heavily oppressive; however, this change in policy did not destroy Finnish aspirations for
political freedom, but only served to arouse the Finns even more. Sibelius became very involved in
the nationalist movement, and his tone poem, Finlandia, took its place as a popular hymn of Finnish
patriotism and independence.
In the rest of Scandinavia this tone poem was called Suomi, Finland’s name in the Finnish language.
Sibelius explained why: “Its performance was forbidden in Finland during the years of unrest, and in
other parts of the [Russian] Empire it could not be played under any name that in any way indicated
its patriotic character. When I conducted it in Reval and Riga, in the summer of 1904, I had to call it
Impromptu.”

The choral part was first published in 1932 for an a cappella chorus. The title the chorale bore was “On
Great Lone Hills.” The choral part with its text by Amy Sherman Bridgman was identical in melody and
harmony to that found within the orchestrated Finlandia. Informed sources report that this chorale
was superimposed onto the orchestral Finlandia because of Eugene Ormandy’s wishes for which
he sought Sibelius’ permission; it was subsequently performed with chorus when the Philadelphia
Orchestra traveled to Finland. It has, however, to date, rarely been performed in this way.

PAGE 14 Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra