' (''The Lover''), Op. 14, is a suite by

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

. He completed it in 1912, scored for

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first a ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

and

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

. He based it on his earlier composition of the same title, a song cycle of four movements for men's chorus

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

completed in 1894. The works are based on a Finnish text in Book 1 of the '' Kanteletar''.

History

In 1894, Sibelius completed ', a cycle of four

songs for men's chorus on a Finnish text in Book 1 of the collection of Finnish folk poems, the '' Kanteletar''. He first set it in 1894, as an entry for a local competition. He won the second prize, while the first prize went to his former teacher. Sibelius arranged the cycle for men's chorus and string orchestra in 1894, and for mixed choir in 1898. Sibelius used the cycle as the basis for the orchestral suite ' for

and

, to which he assigned the

opus number In music, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among ...

14. He completed it in 1912, when he also wrote his Fourth Symphony. Sibelius often conducted the suite together with his symphonies because the piece "captivated audiences".

Music

Structure of the song cycle

# ' # ' # '

Structure of the suite

# ', Andante con moto (common time, D minor) # ' (The way of the lover), Allegretto (, B major) # ' (Good evening, farewell), Andantino (cut time, F major & D minor) In the first movement, the strings sound light and beautiful. The choral part of the second movement was changed to "murmurs on the strings and wonderfully flexible melodic progressions." The third movement is deeply emotional as its model.

Recordings

The orchestral work was recorded along with other music by Sibelius, including '' Snöfrid'', the Cantata for the Coronation of Nicholas II, '' Oma maa'' (My country) and '' Andante Festivo''. On volume 54 of a complete Sibelius Edition by BIS, Osmo Vänskä conducts the

Lahti Symphony Orchestra The Lahti Symphony Orchestra (''Sinfonia Lahti'') is a Finland, Finnish orchestra, based in the city of Lahti. The orchestra is resident at the Sibelius Hall. The orchestra was founded in 1910, and placed under the control of the Lahti municipali ...

. A review notes the works "ethereal polyphony" and compares it to the melancholy of the Sixth Symphony. The work was also recorded by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, as well as by

Susanna Mälkki Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki (born 13 March 1969) is a Finnish conductor and cellist. Early life and education Mälkki was born on 13 March 1969 in Helsinki. She began to learn the violin, piano, and cello in her youth, eventually focusing ...

and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Literature

* Tomi Mäkelä: "Jean Sibelius und seine Zeit" (German), (''tr. "Jean Sibelius and his time"'') Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg 2013

References

External links

* {{italic title Choral compositions by Jean Sibelius Compositions for string orchestra Suites by Jean Sibelius 1894 compositions 1912 compositions Orchestral compositions by Jean Sibelius