Everyman (Sibelius)
Everyman, Op. 83, is a theatre score—comprising 16 numbers—for soloists, mixed choir, orchestra, piano, and organ by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; he wrote the music in 1916 to accompany a Finnish-language production of the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1911 play of the same name.
The play premiered on 5 November 1916 at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki, with Robert Kajanus conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; the theatre director was.
History
Composition
On 15 May 1916, the theatre director wrote to Sibelius asking if he would like to score the Finnish National Theatre's upcoming Finnish-language production of Jedermann, a modern adaptation by the Austrian playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal of the fifteenth-century English morality play Everyman. Jedermann, which Max Reinhardt had premiered in Berlin on 1 December 1911 at the Großes Schauspielhaus, had taken Europe by storm, with subsequent productions in Austria, Denmark, and Sweden. By 1916, it was Finland's turn, and competing productions were scheduled in Helsinki for the end of the year. Sibelius accepted the commission in mid-June, likely—as the musicologist Daniel Grimley has argued—simulated by the play's "images of devotion, sacrifice, pilgrimage, and sacred mission":Sibelius began working on the score on 10 July, although by the next day he already was confiding in his diary doubts about the project. By 13 July, he had broken off work on the project to attend to more pressing matters: the impending marriage of his daughter to on 21 July. Sibelius considered it his responsibility to marry off his daughters "in style ... all this cost money". To address his finances, he "worked like a blacksmith" to compose a handful of piano pieces for the Helsinki-based music publisher.
Premiere
On 5 November 1916, the National Theatre's Jedermann premiered at a 2:00 matinée, with a second performance at 8:00 that night. Robert Kajanus conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, while Maggie Gripenberg choreographed the dances for the banquet scene. In the main roles were Urho Somersalmi, Eero Kilpi,, Helmi Lindelöf, and Teuvo Puro. Lahdensuo, who had seen Jedermann in Dresden and had modeled that production's scenography, opted for "as indifferent a background for the action as possible": the front curtain was gone, such that—from the moment they entered the auditorium—audience members could view the stage. This extended over the orchestra pit in order to create a more intimate connection with the audience and was covered in black material, such that the musicians were not visible; the ceiling, too, was draped in black, and black curtains stretched behind the stage's six large, white-gray columns. All set decorations were omitted, with the exception of a tombstone placed over the hatch. The set design "created a darkly festive, oppressive mood".Writing in Helsingin Sanomat, the theatre critic posited that even though Sibelius's "magnificently generous and wonderfully lucid music" had been the production's "most powerful mood-maker", Hofmannsthal's play remained for the audience merely an "artistic and literary-historical curiosity", its moral comprehensible yet anachronistic:
For the same newspaper, the composer Leevi Madetoja described the score as "a great artistic achievement ... that enhanced the atmosphere of this old play, the moral of which would have been very weak absent ". After complimenting the beauty of two songs, Madetoja praised the "masterly skill" with which Sibelius had captured "vividly" the purification of Everyman's soul: "the organ joins the orchestra, and soon we feel as if under the vaults of a Catholic church. In Uusi Suometar, the theatre critic agreed that Sibelius's music had elevated the production, especially the concluding scenes.
Early revivals
In April 1925, the Berlin-based music publisher Robert Lienau, with whom Sibelius had contracted from 1904 to 1910, wrote asking the composer for a short orchestral work similar in style to the concert suites for Pelléas et Mélisande or Belshazzar's Feast. Sibelius replied that he could make a suite of Jedermann Although Lienau agreed enthusiastically, Sibelius abandoned the idea for unknown reasons. The Sibelius biographer Andrew Barnett speculates that Sibelius may have lost interest in reworking Jedermann upon receiving in May a commission from the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen to compose incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest. Nevertheless, Sibelius produced three pieces for solo piano from No. II, No. IV, and Nos. VII–IX, "presumably as an offshoot" of his work for Lienau.While Sibelius never made Jedermann suitable for the concert hall, a revival of play by Lahdensuo in late 1929 again brought the music to Finnish audiences, albeit outside of the capital. On 7 September, the SS Kuru sank during a storm on Lake Näsijärvi, a tragedy that caused the deaths of 136 people aboard the steamship; as a result, Tampere's Jedermann would serve as a memorial tribute to the deceased. The production was organized in some haste, and because the city did not have large orchestral forces at its disposal, the conductor —at Sibelius's request—arranged the score for smaller forces. The next year, Lahdensuo staged Jedermann in Turku, with Tauno Hannikainen conducting the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra.
On 11 December 1935, the National Theatre revived Jedermann in honor of Sibelius's seventieth birthday.. The production was directed by Glory Leppänen, who had recently studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna from 1933 to 1934; according to Leppänen, Sibelius instructed before the performance "that 'the music must follow every beat of the text, because the note-lengths reflect the words themselves. No deviation from this should be allowed. The delivery of the text should be made to suit the music; this not negotiable'". Moreover, he also expressed his wish that the audience not applaud during or after the performance, so as "'not to destroy the solemn atmosphere'". His son-in-law Jussi Blomstedt (later Jalas) conducted the Theatre Orchestra. The title role again went to Urho Somersalmi, while Teuvo Puro portrayed Death, Good Works, Faith, and Uuno Laakso the Devil; Sibelius's daughter Ruth Snellman was cast as the Paramour.
Music
Jedermann is scored for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed choir, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, strings, timpani, piano, and organ.Discography
The Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and the Lahti Chamber Choir made the world premiere studio recording on 11–13 January 1995 for BIS records. In 2014, Leif Segerstam, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and the also recorded the complete incidental music. Given the close symbiosis between Sibelius's score and von Hofmannthal's text, critics have divided over the merits of the music as a concert item divorced from the stage. Writing in Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach received Jedermann positively, describing it as "a venture that incontestably ignited imagination—just sample the searchingly inspired string-writing in, the commodious skip of, or the stoically affirmative angels' chorus which closes proceedings". Similarly, Michael Scott Rohan for BBC Music Magazine complimented the "starkly original segments, especially, attractive choral songs and final Gloria ... the overall effect is somewhat funereal". However, he conceded that Segerstam's "austere pace ... deepened the gloom" perhaps too greatly, and noted a preference of Vänskä's "livelier" interpretation. In a more ambivalent take, Leslie Wright of MusicWeb International concluded that "much of does not stand as well on its own ... is slow and sombre ... quiet". Nevertheless, she found "more than enough here to sustain interest and virtually all of it sounds like no one but Sibelius ... some lively and tuneful music". David Hurwitz's opinion on Classics Today, however, is dismissive: "Sibelius never made a suite ... and for good reason. There's nothing here that works independently of the play ... Much of the music is athematic ... minutes of utter nothingness ... aside from being exceptionally slow, it's also exceptionally repetitious". The table below lists all commercially available recordings of Jedermann:| Conductor | Orchestra | Soprano | Tenor | Baritone | Choir | Time | Recording venue | Label | |||
| 1 | Lahti Symphony Orchestra | Lahti Chamber Choir | 1995 | 40:29 | Ristinkirkko | BIS | |||||
| 2 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | 2014 | 49:18 | Turku Concert Hall | Naxos |