A Sibelius world premiere?
NewsAvanti! Chamber Orchestra will play Sibelius’ 12-minute Concert Overture, last heard on April 7, 1900 at the Turku Fire Brigade Hall.
Conductor Tuomas Hannikainen discovered the score inside another manuscript and has edited it fr tonight’s concert at 7pm on the ensemble’s Youtube channel here.
Oh no! So my 13 volume “Complete Sibelius” from Bis isn’t so complete?
Unlucky 13.
This appears to have been not only played but recorded by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi. On BIS label.
If you mean the Overture in A minor – it’s a different piece.
“A SIBELIUS WORLD PREMIERE?”
No, it certainly is not…. in your own posting, Mr. Lebrecht, you wrote that this work was “last heard on April 7, 1900 at the Turku Fire Brigade Hall.”
Would still be a premiere of the Hannikainen reconstruction/edition
Haven’t you heard, Greg?
“We are the world.”
“We are the world (we are the world)
We are the children (said we are the children)
Things performed when WE weren’t there to hear
Ain’t no world premiere.
Just you and me, yeah.”
Answer is here:
https://sibeliusone.com/2019/09/concert-overture-by-sibelius-rediscovered/
The answer lies in the key. There are two early overtures that Sibelius wrote – one in A minor, from 1902, the other in E major from 1891. The Maiden in the Tower was written in 1896. All three works are listed as ‘Unpublished’ in The New Grove Dictionary, dating from 1980.
As far as the E major overture goes, the BIS sleeve notes don’t mention any connection with the opera. Neither do those of the Naxos recording of the A minor overture, which, they say, was written in one night in a hotel room.
So it seems that Naxos are overtaking the BIS!