Spring Song (Sibelius)

Spring Song, Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

History

The piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It was premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the . Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song, appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that version.

Instrumentation

Spring Song is scored for the following instruments, organized by family :

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, and 2 bassoons
4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, and tuba
Timpani and tubular bells
Violins, violas, cellos, and double basses

The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of tubular bells at the end of the song.

Structure

Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:

	Conductor	Orchestra		Time	Recording venue	Label
1		Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	1973	8:21	Southampton Guildhall	EMI Classics
2		Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra	1975	6:56	Liverpool Philharmonic Hall	EMI Classics
3		Royal Scottish National Orchestra	1977	7:10	Glasgow City Halls	Chandos
4		Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	1986	8:17	Gothenburg Concert Hall	BIS
5		Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	8:19	Mosfilm Studios	Brilliant Classics
6		Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	1994	7:46	Gothenburg Concert Hall	Deutsche Grammophon
7		Lahti Symphony Orchestra	1999	8:14	Ristinkirkko	BIS
8			2002	8:32		Finlandia
9		Lahti Symphony Orchestra	2007	7:34	Sibelius Hall	BIS
10		Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra	2007	8:56	Finlandia Hall	Ondine
11		Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra	2018	7:45	Grieg Hall	Chandos
12		BBC Symphony Orchestra	2018	9:03	Watford Colosseum	Chandos