Poster Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Yousuf Karsh
Performance Today®

Tapiola

There's a word in the Finnish language called "sisu." It's hard to translate, but it means a sort of grim determination, having the strength to face adversity head-on without giving up. People who know the Finnish culture say that one word, sisu, pretty much sums it all up. In today's show, music by a Finn with a whole lot of sisu, Jean Sibelius. We'll hear his dark, brooding tone poem Tapiola, about the mysterious forests in the far north of Finland.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Jean Sibelius: Two movements from Suite Mignonne, Op. 98a
Gerard Schaub and Kenneth Wihlborg flutes, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi, conductor

Ottorino Respighi: Pines of the Appian Way, from the Pines of Rome
The United States Army Field Band, the Dallas Wind Symphony, Jerry Junkin, conductor
Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas

Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias Nos. 1-5, BWV 787-791
Angela Hewitt, piano
Spring for Music, New York City

Maurice Ravel: Tzigane, Concert Rhapsody for Violin and Piano
Augustin Hadelich, violin, Jeewon Park, piano
Benaroya Hall, Seattle

Jean Sibelius: Tapiola, Op. 112
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Hour 2

Ernest Bloch: Second movement from Symphony in E-flat
The Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko, conductor

William Bolcom: Graceful Ghost
Clara-Jumi Kang, violin, Yeol Eum Son, piano
Great Mountains International Music Festival, Pyongchang, South Korea

Georg Philipp Telemann: Gulliver's Suite, for Two Violins
Livia Sohn and Geoff Nuttall, violins
Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina

Josquin des Prez: Lament on the Death of Jean Ockeghem
Ensemble Clement Janequin, Dominique Visse, director
Boston Early Music Festival, Boston

Ernest Bloch: Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra with Piano Obbligato
Miles Graber, piano, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin and leader
First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto, California

George Gershwin: Bess, You is my Woman Now, from Porgy and Bess
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin and leader
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, California

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