Many years ago I too had the pleasure of performing this with a youth orchestra with members selected from around the UK for the sole purpose of rehearsal and performance of this symphony (I can't remember the other pieces we performed) - my lasting memory was the trumpet part being played by a brass band player who continued to apply the vibrato that is associated with such bands - contrary to the purists, it actually worked, so much so that I can remember with great fondness this symphony. (PS I was a tuba player).
Ormandy-Philadelphia was one of those great combinations, like Bernstein-New York or Solti-Chicago. As I was explaining last week to an unbelievably stupid person who seemed to think that classical music is authoritarian because there is one guy in charge and everybody has to be disciplined, musical performance, no matter the genre, has to be about collaboration. If you don't have that, your technical skill doesn't matter for much.
It is possible we'll never hear such an orchestral sound again. Leopold Stokowski built the sound, and Ormandy maintained it for 42+ years. Riccardo Muti supposedly "updated" the sound to be more flexible, but something precious was lost that not even Wolfgang Sawallisch could recover.
I have the pleasure of playing this Symphony as a second violinist with the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on March 27th of this year. And honestly, I love the whole thing, including the ascending scale at the end. Also, thanks for the enlarged score, it helped me a lot!
You're the first person to have used this as a study tool, or at least the first to tell me about it. I've also loved this symphony since I first heard a recording...which I think is the same recording I used for the video. I've got two others of Sibelius in the pipeline (1 and 5), and I'm happy to take any other suggestions for future videos.
@@Dylonely42 I think this is my favorite of his symphonies, and one of my favorites by any composer. I do have some more put together, to be released before too much longer.
Am I the only one who has ALWAYS heard the first theme of the first movement starting in the one and only now realised that it’s actually starting in the middle of the bar??? My whole life has been a lie! Im even afraid of trying to feel the music as written. I don’t want to mutate my precious idea of the piece aiaiai
One of the reasons I enjoy producing these videos is the way in which I can learn little details here and there. I also had that impression, just listening to this piece, and thought there was some metrical shifting going on in there at the beginning. The first video I produced (which I look back on and see I need to rework to bring it in line to current production standards) I was following along in the score, and got to one particular note. I was thinking to myself "wait, a _bassoon_ is making that sound?"
It starts like that, but if you read through the rest of the opening you'll see that it eventually gets 'on track' just before the bit where the 2 clarinets round it off. This is a common trait in Sibelius' music.
