The Lemminkäinen Suite was revised multiple times by Sibelius, with the complete suite only authorized for publication in 1954, three years before his death.
Compositional Technique
The Suite from 'Belshazzar's Feast' emphasizes an Oriental coloring through its use of unconventional scales and exotic instrumental scoring.
Compositional Technique
The Lemminkäinen Suite, like Sibelius's symphonies, expands, develops, and combines musical material in an abstract manner, rather than providing a detailed musical narrative.
Composition History
Sibelius worked on the Lemminkäinen Suite between 1893 and 1896, shortly after his first popular success with the music for the pageant Karelia.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Sibelius considered the Kalevala, the national epic of Finnish mythology, to be "pure music, themes and variations," with its story less important than its moods and atmosphere.
Composition History
Sibelius composed incidental music for Hjalmar Procopé's play 'Belshazzar's Feast' in 1906, conducting the premiere himself, and later reworked some numbers into a four-movement suite.
Interpretation
Conductor Sakari Oramo chose to reverse the order of two inner movements in the Lemminkäinen Suite for this recording, finding it "a more rewarding order musically," as Sibelius himself did at the 1896 premiere.
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