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*Spring Song*
Spring Song
Tone poem by Jean Sibelius
	The composer (c. 1895)
Native name	Vårsång
Opus	16
Composed	1894, rev. 1895
Publisher	Fazer & Westerlund [fi] (1903)
Duration	8 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)
Premiere
Date	21 June 1894
Location	Vaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland
Conductor	Jean Sibelius
Performers	Orchestra of the Song Festival

Spring Song (in Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

History

The piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the Society for Popular Education [fi] (Kansanvalistusseura). Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.^[5]

Structure

The work is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glocken, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.^[6] Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.

$\relative c' \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } { \key f \major \time 3/4 \tempo "" r4^\markup \italic cantabile c\mp ( d) c4.$ bes8( d bes) c4$ f--( e-- f) c2 d4-- $ e8\> ( d e4\! d4.) $ \< c8( \> $ e c\! ) d2.$ \< d2.*5/6 s8\! }$

The tempo marking is: Tempo moderato e sostenuto. The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of bells at the end of the song.^[7]

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:

No.	Conductor	Orchestra	Rec.^[b]	Time	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
1	Paavo Berglund	Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	1973	8:21	Southampton Guildhall	EMI Classics	^[c]
2	Sir Charles Groves	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra	1975	6:56	Liverpool Philharmonic Hall	EMI Classics	^[d]
3	Sir Alexander Gibson	Royal Scottish National Orchestra	1977	7:10	Glasgow City Halls	Chandos	^[e]
4	Neeme Järvi (1)	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1)	1986	8:17	Gothenburg Concert Hall	BIS	^[f]
5	Vassily Sinaisky	Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	8:19	Mosfilm Studios	Brilliant Classics	^[g]
6	Neeme Järvi (2)	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2)	1994	7:46	Gothenburg Concert Hall	Deutsche Grammophon	^[h]
7	Osmo Vänskä (1)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1)	1999	8:14	Ristinkirkko	BIS	^[i]
8	Shuntaro Sato	Kuopio Symphony Orchestra [fi]	2002	8:32	Kuopio Music Centre [fi]	Finlandia	^[j]
9	Osmo Vänskä (2)	Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2)	2007	7:34	Sibelius Hall	BIS	^[k]
10	Leif Segerstam	Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra	2007	8:56	Finlandia Hall	Ondine	^[l]
11	Edward Gardner	Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra	2018	7:45	Grieg Hall	Chandos	^[m]
12	Sakari Oramo	BBC Symphony Orchestra	2018	9:03	Watford Colosseum	Chandos	^[n]

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

^ On 20 July 1905, the Helsinki-based music publisher Fazer & Westerlund [fi] (Helsingfors Nya Musikhandel) sold its Sibelius holdings (the publishing rights and printing plates) to the German firm of Breitkopf & Härtel.^[2]
^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
^ P. Berglund–EMI Classics (5 69773 2) 1997
^ C. Groves–EMI Classics (5 85532 2) 2003
^ A. Gibson–Chandos (CHAN 8395/6) 1985
^ N. Järvi–BIS (CD–384) 1988
^ V. Sinaisky–Brilliant Classics (BC9212) 2010
^ Neeme. Järvi–DG (00028947755227) yyyy
^ O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1125) 2000
^ S. Sato–Finlandia (0927–49598–2) 2003
^ O. Vänskä–BIS (SACD–1645) 2009
^ L. Segerstam–Ondine (ODE 1112–2) 2007
^ E. Gardner–Chandos (CHSA 5217) 2021
^ S. Oramo–Chandos (CHAN 20136) 2019

References

^ Dahlström 2003, p. 58.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. xxiv.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. 57.
^ Dahlström 2003, p. 28.
^ Tawaststjerna 2008, p. 142.
^ Score, Sibelius: Vårsång (Frühlingslied), Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig, 1903
^ Barnett 2007.

Sources

Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11159-0.
Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
Tawaststjerna, Erik (2008) [1965/1967; trans. 1976]. Sibelius: Volume I, 1865–1905. Translated by Layton, Robert. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-24772-1.
Vernon, David (2024). Sun Forest Lake: The Symphonies & Tone Poems of Jean Sibelius. Edinburgh: Candle Row Press. ISBN 978-1739659943.