Sibelius 6 & 7 together, without a break?

[wzg]

This is how my idol Sir Simon Rattle performs them. How do you think of this, please?

[pastoralguy]

I've been lucky enough to hear Sibelius 5, 6 & 7 in one concert twice. The first time was, iirc, about 10 years ago in Glasgow when Lief Siegerstam conducted the BBC Scottish. I remember it made a very powerful impression. Again, iirc, Siegerstam played 6 & 7 without a break and I did enjoy it.

The second time was a year past February when I heard Sir Simon and Die Berliner Philharmoniker at the Barbican in London. (My attendance at that concert was a series of happy and unhappy accidents!) I really enjoyed that performance too although, if I'm really honest, it didn't have quite the same impact that the BBC SSO concert did.

I feel that having 6&7 played almost as a five movement work takes me into a sound world that I don't want to leave.

I was lucky enough to meet Sir Simon at this years Edinburgh Festival and told him I'd been at that concert. He commented "Yes, we were really hanging on by the skin of our teeth at the end!"

[richardfinegold]

Why not throw Tapiola in for good measure?
Or, to extend the concept further, why stop at Sibelius? Since all Brahm's Symphonies 'share the same sound world' let's program all 16 movements consecutively? Or Beethoven's 37 Symphonic movements? Or for a real value packed evening, let's do Haydn?

[Sir Velo]

Why not throw Tapiola in for good measure?
Or, to extend the concept further, why stop at Sibelius? Since all Brahm's Symphonies 'share the same sound world' let's program all 16 movements consecutively? Or Beethoven's 37 Symphonic movements? Or for a real value packed evening, let's do Haydn?

Who is this Brahm?

[Beef Oven!]

Who is this Brahm?

A composer who wrote fewer symphonies than Sibeliu’s seven.

[Beef Oven!]

Works both ways as far as I’m concerned, so I voted it doesn’t matter.

[Petrushka]

None of the three options seem to apply where I'm concerned so I won't vote. They are separate works in their own right and there is nothing incomplete about the 6th that it needs the 7th tacking on to make it into a 'proper' symphony. There should be a fourth option for 'leave well alone'.

[Conchis]

6 and 7 are difficult to programme: too short for main items, too weighty for overtures. They rarely seem to get an airing outside of 'all Sibelius' programmes.

I've never quite 'got' the 6th, but my cat loves it, for some reason. Maybe it's music best appreciated by felines?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

People come up with these ideas, but I've never been a fan of saturation programming. Someone once proposed treating Mozart's last 3 symphonies as a single entity.

No way.

[Beef Oven!]

People come up with these ideas, but I've never been a fan of saturation programming. Someone once proposed treating Mozart's last 3 symphonies as a single entity.

No way.

Norrington. Brilliant. You should try it (and saturation has nothing to do with it).

[Colonel Danby]

There is no really problem with programming the last three Sibelius symphonies as a mini cycle, and I was very fortunate as a schoolboy to hear the CBSO in the old Town Hall in Birmingham in just such a concert under Simon Rattle in the early 80s (I'm sure that he did the same programme in London too). It's the same with a Brahms Symphony cycle, again with Uncle Simes at the helm in TH: as far as I was concerned, if he was convinced of a concert marathon, then so was I.

[Beef Oven!]

There is no really problem with programming the last three Sibelius symphonies as a mini cycle, and I was very fortunate as a schoolboy to hear the CBSO in the old Town Hall in Birmingham in just such a concert under Simon Rattle in the early 80s (I'm sure that he did the same programme in London too). It's the same with a Brahms Symphony cycle, again with Uncle Simes at the helm in TH: as far as I was concerned, if he was convinced of a concert marathon, then so was I.

Not forgetting Paavo.

[Barbirollians]

People come up with these ideas, but I've never been a fan of saturation programming. Someone once proposed treating Mozart's last 3 symphonies as a single entity.

No way.

Harnoncourt did that did he not in his late recording ?

[maestro267]

Why not throw Tapiola in for good measure?
Or, to extend the concept further, why stop at Sibelius? Since all Brahm's Symphonies 'share the same sound world' let's program all 16 movements consecutively? Or Beethoven's 37 Symphonic movements? Or for a real value packed evening, let's do Haydn?

Or all 50 movements of Mahler! The symphonies have occasional motifs that pop up in multiple symphonies, so really it's one 15-hour mega-symphony!

[Roslynmuse]

No problem about including the two pieces in the same programme, but not allowing us to absorb one piece before starting on the next seems disrespectful, even arrogant. I have a problem with conductors who make an unasked for attacca between symphonic movements (eg last two mts of Tchaik 4) and this takes it one step further.