Sibelius takes long walks in the forest mist. Gallen-Kallela paints a realistic yet mythic Finnish landscape. Miniature trees in the foreground suggest Finland’s forests to come. Brushstrokes like breath or delicate oars cause the lake’s many ripples. In Sibelius’s strings a brooding three note pattern of rising notes, each one louder. They are someone’s footsteps, waves pulsing the shore, the sounds of native speech. They swell with the seeds of the entire symphony, of all of Finland that might be lost if the Russian yoke presses too hard.
Along the way a lifting of spirit, a folk song, tuneful, in the oboes and clarinets. The sun will come out; something heroic will happen. Elites dubbed his music nationalist kitsch; other elites along with the masses rise from their seats as the extended climax at the end of the third movement builds into the finale, the sun gleaming on horns and trumpets and trombones. The sky in Lake View a harmonious, dramatic twisting and turning of multi-colored characters, dramatic light. The brass rising, reappearing as strings weave in and out what Sibelius’s forest knows. Near the end he burned many of his works, including his eighth symphony. Tree by tree by tree. Page by page by page.
For a performance of Sibelius’s Second Symphony by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, click here.
Check out my latest book, Tennis Players as Works of Art, now available on Amazon. Called “madly ambitious” and named one its 5 featured books of 2024 in the category of Art/Imagination/Creativity by Publisher’s Weekly Booklife, Tennis Players as Works of Art has also been named “One of the Best Books we Read in 2024” (Independent Book Review) and “Book of the Year” (Inside Tennis Magazine.)
Happy to announce that this blog is listed as one of Feedspot’s 90 Best Tennis Blogs and Websites of 2025
