HELIOS OVERTURE – CARL NIELSEN

VARIATION ON A THEME BY HAYDN – JOHANNES BRAHMS

SYMPHONY NO 2 – JEAN SIBELIUS

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is widely recognised as Denmark’s greatest composer. From humble beginnings and the seventh of twelve children, his musical potential evolved steadily – from playing a tiny violin aged six, via service as army bugler and alto trombonist, to student of violin and composition in Copenhagen – his compositions gained recognition while a 2nd violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra. His output included six highly-regarded symphonies, violin, flute and clarinet concerti, operas and songs, but the Helios Overture Op 17 we will play is among the most frequently performed. Inspired by a stay in Athens – in fact, a working holiday with his sculptress wife – this showpiece for orchestra, premiered in 1903, wonderfully evokes the rising and setting of the sun over the Aegean Sea.

A chance encounter with a wind ensemble arrangement of a work attributed to Joseph Haydn inspired Johannes Brahms(1833-1897) to write his Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op 56a. Also known as the St Anthony Variations, the now familiar piece – based on the eponymous chorale and comprised of a theme, eight variations and finale – displays a mastery of counterpoint rarely encountered in music of the Romantic period. In the final, magnificent restatement of the tune, Brahms – a generally austere composer – even permits himself the use of a triangle! This inventive and glorious piece was well-received when first performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1873.

Buoyed by the success of his tone poem Finlandia at its premiere in 1900, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) accepted an influential benefactor’s offer to spend some time in Italy where, he was advised, “one learns cantabile, balance and harmony…in a country where everything is beautiful, even the ugly”. Accordingly, while ensconced in his mountain villa near Rapallo, the composer was inspired to pen his beautiful Symphony No 2 in D major Op 43. When premiered in Helsinki in 1902 the first three performances were sell-outs, so there can be, perhaps, no greater endorsement than that of this masterpiece of orchestration which has even been favourably compared with the symphonies of Beethoven.