Pan and Echo

Pan and Echo
Dance intermezzo by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1905)
Native namePan och Echo
Opus53
Composed1906 (1906)
PublisherLienau (1907)[1]
Duration4.5 mins.[1]
Premiere
Date24 March 1906 (1906-03-24)[1]
LocationHelsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
ConductorJean Sibelius
PerformersHelsinki Philharmonic Society

Pan and Echo (in Swedish Pan och Echo; in Finnish: Pan ja Kaiku; subtitled "Dance intermezzo No. 3"),[1] Op. 53,[a] is tableau music for orchestra written in early 1906 by the Finnish composer by Jean Sibelius. The piece premiered in Helsinki on 24 March 1906, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society; the venue was the original location of the Hotelli Seurahuone [fi] (Helsinki City Hall since 1913).[2][1]

Though brief, Pan and Echo is, according to Sibelius's biographer Andrew Barnett, "poetic, full of feeling, and scored with great sensitivity".[2]

Sibelius's Pan and Echo premiered during a lottery evening at the Hotelli Seurahuone [fi] on 24 March 1906.

Instrumentation

Pan and Echo is scored for the following instruments,[1] organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):

Discography

The Finnish conductor Martti Similä [fi] and the Finlandia Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of Pan and Echo c. 1956 for Fennica.[1] The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

No. Conductor Ensemble Rec.[b] Time Recording venue Label Ref.
1 Martti Similä [fi] Finlandia Orchestra c. 1956 ? ? Fennica
[c]
2 Sir Charles Groves Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 1975 4:27 Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool EMI Classics
[d]
3 Neemi Järvi Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra 1986 4:33 Gothenburg Concert Hall BIS
[e]
4 Stanislav Gorkovenko Saint Petersburg Radio and TV Orchestra [ru] ? 4:21 ? Elap
[f]
5 Shuntaro Sato Kuopio Symphony Orchestra [fi] 2002 4:29 Kuopio Music Centre [fi] Finlandia
[g]
6 Osmo Vänskä Lahti Symphony Orchestra 2004 4:07 Sibelius Hall BIS
[h]
7 Pietari Inkinen New Zealand Symphony Orchestra 2007 4:51 Michael Fowler Centre Naxos
[i]

Notes, references, and sources

Notes
  1. ^ Pan and Echo was published as Sibelius's Op. 53a. However, no work in his oeuvre retains the 'Op. 53b' designation.
  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.
  3. ^ [ M. Similä–Fennica (SS 1) 1968]
  4. ^ C. Groves–EMI Classics (85532) 2004
  5. ^ N. Järvi–BIS (CD–359) 1987
  6. ^ S. Gorkovenko–Elap (44183CD) 1998
  7. ^ S. Sato–Finlandia (0927–49598–2) 2003
  8. ^ O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1565) 2006
  9. ^ P. Inkinen–Naxos (8.570763) 2008
References
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Dahlström 2003, p. 245.
  2. ^ a b Barnett 2007, p. 175.
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.

Also see