Karelia Suite, Op.11

Intermezzo

Ballade

Alla marcia

Karelia in the south-east of Finland had a special meaning for Sibelius – not so much because he spent part of his honeymoon there as because it was the region which best preserved the authentic traditions of Finnish music and poetry. Most of the material of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala (“Land of the Heroes”), which was the source of inspiration of many of Sibelius’s greatest works, derives from there. His first tribute to Karelia, however, was a score designed to accompany scenic representations of important moments in the history of the region. Although the pageant (presented in Helsinki in 1893) was a great patriotic success, only four of the nine pieces have ever been published – the Karelia Overture and the three movements of the Karelia Suite. There are two marches in the suite, the first (entitled Intermezzo) inexorably approaching to the sound of distant horns and passing by in a blaze of trumpet glory, the other (Alla marcia) alternating cheerfully bouyant marching tune with a brilliant fanfare. Between the two, the Ballade, a vocal number in the original work, is rescored here for dark-coloured woodwind, sonorous strings and an expressive cor anglais.

Intermezzo

Ballade

Alla marcia

When Sibelius and Aino Järnefelt got married in 1892 they took their honeymoon in Karelia, in the south-east of Finland. As the source of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala (“Land of the Heroes’) - compiled by Elias Lönrot from the folk-songs of the region - Karelia was the natural place for a Finnish nationalist composer and his no less nationalist wife to choose for a romantic setting. It was also natural that two years later, when asked to contribute to a fund-raising event on behalf of education in eastern Finland, Sibelius interrupted work on his Lemminkäienen Suite to write the music for it. His task was to provide a score to accompany a series of seven tableaux representing important moments in the history of Karelia. Although the entertain­ment (presented in Helsinki on 13 November, 1893) was a great patriotic success only four of the nine Karelia pieces have ever been published - the Overture as a separate piece, Op.10, and the March in the Old Style, the Tempo di Menuetto, and the Alla marcia as the Karelia Suite, Op.11.

In the Suite the March in the Old Style bears the title Intermezzo, presumably to avoid confusion with the other march in the third movement. Intended to accompany a tableau representing “the Lithuanian Prince Narimont collecting taxes from the Karelian people,” it is a single-minded construction obstinately attached to one tonality and to one theme in its approach from afar, its arrival, and its departure.

The Tempo di Menuetto - representing the local hero Karl Knutsson “surrounded by his courtiers in Viipuri Castle and listening to a ballad singer” - originally had a vocal part. Rescored and headed Ballade in the Suite, it is no less atmospheric as an orchestral piece in its combination of folk-inspired melody and simple harmonies and in the apparently artless introduction of a new and rhythmically asymmetrical tune on cor anglais shortly before the end.

In the Alla marcia “Pontus de la Gardie is seen as the conqueror and burner of Käkiholma in 1580.” It is a brilliantly scored march, longer and more developed than the Intermezzo and more resourceful in construction with contrasting fanfare material which is later integrated with the main theme.

Gerald Larner©