Sibelius: Swanwhite & The Lizard

 

 Swanwhite is a light, gentle piece of incidental music from Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Much of the music is quite beautiful, with nearly all of the tempos moving moderately to slow over the 30 minutes. There is relatively little inherent drama across the music, relying instead on fantastical orchestral colors to carry the listener through its fantasy world.

There are a few curiosities from Sibelius in translating the story through music. First is having the magical harp portrayed by pizzicato strings instead of an actual harp, an aspect which was rectified in the concert suite. As I understand it, this choice was a matter of budget and resources, however, it seems a missed opportunity as well, and somehow a pipe organ is allotted the finale of the work.

The second oddity doesn't concern the music at all. Naxos chooses to continue their stark, one-imaged digital cover art instead of the frozen landscapes employed earlier in this series. Here, though, they choose to show a peacock representing Swanwhite, yet there is no mention of a peacock in the liner notes. While initially confused, further searching around the internets let me know there is indeed a peacock involved in the story of Swanwhite. Don't you think such an image to a play involving swans would require at least a passing note from Naxos to the listener as to why there is a peacock? Perhaps I am just an ignorant plebe in regards to global storytelling.

While the 30-minute Swanwhite is divided into 14 contrasting sections, The Lizard's 25 minutes is set in two parts only, with tempo markings of Lento and Grave for its two scenes. Contrasting the affability of Swanwhite, The Lizard is highly chromatic and atmospheric, with little for the listener to grasp onto in the way of themes or melodies or dramatic action, especially the longer second scene. Instead, Sibelius essentially writes strings-only background music. Not my cup of tea, for sure.

Both A Lonely Ski Trail and The Countess' Portrait are but four-minutes in length, and both are accompanied by foreign-language narration (again, Naxos does not inform us as to what language is being spoken). Luckily, Sibelius lets the listener hear the music before the narration begins over top, plus Riko Eklundh's smooth vocal quality is a balm to the soul no matter if I understand the words or not.

As I have mentioned across this Naxos series of incidental music from Sibelius, Leif Segerstam knows how to elicit the loveliest of string sonorities from an ensemble, here the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. This is especially notable on this particular recording, as the last three works of this program are scored for string orchestra without contribution from winds or percussion, although harp pops up here and there. Too bad Naxos doesn't acknowledge the solo violinist in The Lizard; they really seem to be dropping the ball in this volume.

 

 

 

Works
Swanwhite, JS 189 (29.29)
The Lizard, op. 8 (25.50)
A Lonely Ski Trail, JS 77b (3.45)
The Countess' Portrait, JS 88 (4.29)

Soloists
Riko Eklundh, narrator

Ensembles
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor

Label: Naxos
Year: 2015
Total Timing: 63.34

 

 

 

 

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