Clef
Notes would like to welcome its newest contributor! Xavier University music
student and WGUC intern Connor Annable shares his thoughts on Kullervo
by Jean Sibelius this week:
The
“choral symphony” Kullervo, completed in 1892, was the first major
orchestral work Jean Sibelius composed following the end of his formal music
studies in his native Finland and with Albert Becker in Vienna. Scored for solo
baritone and mezzo-soprano, male chorus and an orchestra of Romantic-era
proportions (including a percussion section that is not unduly large, with
cymbals and triangle complementing timpani), it is based on the character
Kullervo from the Kalevala, widely recognized as the national epic of
Finland.
Although typically described as a symphony, Kullervo is
actually a series of five interconnected tone poems which serve as musical
guides to the story of the title character, the only one considered tragic in
all of Finnish mythology. Interestingly enough, the work was very positively
received when it was premiered on April 28, 1892 in Helsinki. After this
personal triumph, however, Sibelius essentially disowned what he had written,
rescinding its planned publication and instead forming a plan to revise the
score which never came to fruition. As a result, Kullervo was not
performed again in its complete form until 1958, only 1 year after Sibelius’s
death in 1957. A performance edition of the complete work, consequently, was
not published until 1961. The entire work will typically take around 70-80
minutes to perform, making Kullervo on the same level as a Mahler
symphony, although not quite as sweeping and Romantic-sounding.
The
first movement introduces the brooding and dark landscape in which Kullervo
will eventually find himself. Kullervo’s Youth is considered by some
scholars as an extension of the first movement, or perhaps a lullaby of some
sort. But I would take this as an exploration of how Kullervo’s personality
developed even before he was born. The clan or tribe in which he had been
raised, excluding his mother, has all been murdered by his uncle Untamo.
Kullervo’s desire for revenge initially leads to him being sold as a slave,
then as a herdsman to the smith Ilmarinen. After he is implicated in the death
of Ilmarinen’s wife, Kullervo flees and reunites with his mother.
The third movement, Kullervo and His Sister, introduces the chorus and
vocal soloists for the first time in the piece. The male chorus serves a
similar function to a Greek chorus, mainly commenting on the metaphysical
actions which are unfolding on stage. They also sing primarily in unison, only
rarely splitting into four-part harmony (this applies to the 5th
movement as well). This is also the symphony’s longest movement, clocking in at
about 25 minutes long. At this point in the
story, Kullervo is delivering taxes and comes across two women who swiftly
reject his advances. The third young girl he comes across and supposedly
engages with on a physical level is later discovered to be his long-lost
sister. Upon discovering this, the sister proceeds to kill herself by drowning
in a nearby stream. Kullervo is represented by a solo baritone, while the
sister is represented by a solo mezzo-soprano (some recordings use a solo
soprano in place of a mezzo). In the fourth
movement, Kullervo Goes to War, a constant march-like tempo
represents Kullervo fighting against his uncle with a new sword given him by
Ukko, the chief of the gods. With it, he kills Untamo’s entire tribe. Sibelius
seems to augment this sense of triumph and heroism musically through the
repeated use of percussion and trumpet fanfares against full chords in the rest
of the orchestra, while also appearing to suggest the wind-swept Nordic
landscape Kullervo finds himself fighting in. In the final movement, Kullervo’s
Death, the chorus returns to describe how Kullervo returned to the place
where he seduced his sister in the forest, and how feelings of guilt compel him
to die by falling on his own sword. In short, Jean Sibelius’s Kullervo is the
finest example of how his stylistic trappings came to be set in stone through
the ensuing decades of composing. It is also a tragically underrated
masterpiece of choral-orchestral music that deserves to be played and recorded
more often than it has.
RECOMMENDED
RECORDINGS:
Lahti
Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänska, conductor; Lili Passikivvi, mezzo-soprano;
Raimo Laukka, baritone; YL Male Voice Choir; BIS BIS-1215
Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra/Leif Segerstam, conductor; Soile Isokoski, soprano;
Tommi Hakala, baritone; YL Male Voice Choir; Ondine ODE1122-5
Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Paavo Järvi, conductor; Peter Mattei,
baritone; Randi Stene, mezzo-soprano; Estonian National Male Choir; Virgin
Classics (reissued on Erato through Warner Classics); VC 5 45292 2
Like
what Connor has to share? Stay tuned for more from Connor in coming weeks!
