Symphony No. 4

Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 4 has not been performed very often by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra: 27 times (+ 2 radio performances). Symphony No. 4 was first performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 March 1917 with Georg Schnéevoigt conducting. The symphony was also performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1940 and 1945 at the concerts celebrating Sibelius’ 75th and 80th birthdays respectively. Herbert Blomstedt conducted Symphony No. 4 during a tour of Norrland in 1965.

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 4 a minor op 63 (1911)

Tempo molto moderato, quasi adagio
Allegro molto vivace
Il tempo largo
Allegro

Duration approx. 38 minutes

Between 1909–11, the Fourth symphony was Sibelius’ highest priority. But he also wrote many other works. He was in dire need of money to pay off debts and was forced to write piano pieces, songs, and music for theater plays, while going over previous works to make them fit for printing. He was also forced to host his English benefactor, Mrs Rosa Newmarch, who visited Finland and stayed for almost three weeks. He also had concerts in Oslo, Gothenburg, and Riga.

As if this weren’t enough, he also accepted a new assignment from the star soprano Aino Ackté, who had proposed a common concert tour of Germany organized by her impresario Emil Gutmann, known for being behind the historic premiere of Mahler’s Eighth symphony in Munich in September 1910. Sibelius was to write a new song with orchestral accompaniment to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven, which he knew of through the Swedish translation by Viktor Rydberg.

In the fall of 1910, Sibelius wavered between The Raven and the Fourth symphony, and became more and more irritated by the former. On December 3, he wrote in his diary: ”Dubious about the text. ’The words’ are always an onus on my art. Looked at Kalevala and it struck me– how I had grown from this naïve poetry.”

He soon realized that he would not be able to finish The Raven in time for the premiere in February and backed out: ”Burned bridges once again. Broke with the Gutmann advertisement and Aino Ackté. But I will stand for the consequences! – Am leaving ’The Raven’ for now. Threw away a month! The heart weeps.”

He was deeply sorry that he had not given the Symphony time to mature. The planned premiere had to be pushed to April, since the Symphony was not ready when Sibelius began the concert tour in the beginning of February. In Gothenburg, he conducted his Second and Third symphonies as well as Pohjolas daughter over two concerts, along with some smaller works. From Gothenburg he traveled on via Berlin to Riga, where he stayed for eight days and conducted four concerts (one of them in Jelgava). On his return he noted in his diary:  ”The concert tour and diverse small things here have unfortunately taken (circa) a month. Woe is me!”

But after hard work, he could write on April 2: ”The Symphony is ’finished’. Jacta alea est! Must! It takes much manliness to stare life right in the eyes.”

”The dice is cast!” might well refer to the beginning of the first movement (Tempo molto moderato, quasi adagio). Four tones, c–d–f-sharp–e, are seemingly thrown onto the table in fortissimo, con sordino, and there is no return. The tritone interval c–f-sharp creates an instability such that the tonality is not cemented until the theme in a minor is presented in the celli.   

The tritone interval pervades the different themes and tonal relations of the symphony, just as in Béla Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle from the same year. The second movement (Allegro molto vivace) begins as a playful scherzo with charm and good humor, but in the second half (Doppio più lento) it gains a gloomy and dramatic character with threatening accents. The nucleus of the symphony is the third movement (Il tempo largo), which has been described as ”the birth of a theme.” 

In the final movement (Allegro), a conflict develops between two tonalities, A major and E-flat major, which are themselves a tritone apart. In this movement,  Sibelius also uses material from the unfinished orchestral song The Raven, as if he wanted to say: 

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, 
still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas 
just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming 
of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming 
throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow 
that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted – nevermore!

(Edgar Allan Poe)

— Ilkka Oramo
English translation: George Kentros