Sibelius, Elegiaco

From The New York Times:

Who knew? Sibelius, composer of seven visionary symphonies, wrote a sizable body of piano pieces that remain mostly neglected. The adventurous Mr. Andsnes discovers them on this exquisitely played album of beguiling, lyrical and quirky works. Even those with tame titles like “Impromptu” startle you.

And so The Times included Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes‘ recording of Sibelius’ piano music in its top 25 albums of 2017.

Andsnes set out to counter the somewhat unfavorable impression of Sibelius’ piano works by music critics. Acknowledging that those works are of uneven quality, he nevertheless pulled together a recording of many that deserve greater attention. Among them is the collection of 13 short works comprising opus 76 written between 1911 and 1919. The movements average only about a minute and a half in length and bear descriptive titles such as Humoresque, Consolation, Arabesque, and Harlequinade. Elegiaco is number ten in the set.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is inseparable from Finnish Nationalism. We featured his Finlandia in this series several years ago. He is primarily known for his seven symphonies and several other orchestral works.