Jean Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise (1909)

One of the first pieces of music by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius that I heard was his Night Ride and Sunrise, op.55 (1908). It remains one of his most neglected tone poems. It was included on a Decca Eclipse LP coupled with the Symphony No.5 in E flat, op.82 and the Overture from Karelia Music. This had been recently issued in 1972 with the ‘trademark’ sleeve featuring a National Trust property. In this case it is a scene of Gowbarrow, near Ullswater in the Lake District. It is what encouraged me to invest in the album, as I was just beginning to explore this part of the country during the early seventies.

The recording history is a little complicated. Both the Karelia Overture and Night Ride and Sunrise were recorded at the Kingsway Hall, London between 2-3 June 1955. The Symphony, at the same venue between 25-27 January 1955. Anthony Collins conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Symphony and Night Ride were released on LXT 5083 and LL1276 (USA). The Karelia Overture was issued on a 10-inch disc, LW 5209, together with excerpts from the Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite. In 1972, the three works were reissued on Decca Eclipse ECS 605, with reprocessed ‘stereo.’ This was an attempt at making the old monaural recordings sound better by adding reverberation and ‘tinkering’ with frequency levels. Some reviewers felt that the original recordings were ruined by this novel process.

There is some debate as to Sibelius’s vision for this work. On the one hand, he suggested to his secretary Santeri Levas that it was inspired by a journey he made in his native Finland, on a sleigh between Helsinki and Kerava. Levas later wrote that the composer witnessed an unforgettable sunrise: “The whole heavens were a sea of colours that shifted and flowed, producing the most inspiring sight until it all ended in growing light.” Yet, he told his biographer Karl Ekman that the piece was conceived on first seeing the Colosseum, whilst on a trip to Rome in 1901. Whatever the truth, he told his friend, the English poet and writer on music, Rosa Newmarch, that it shared “the inner experiences of an average man riding solitary through the forest gloom; sometimes glad to be alone with Nature; occasionally awe-stricken by the stillness or the strange sounds which break it; but thankful and rejoicing in the daybreak.”

The writer of the sleeve notes for the original 1955 (LXT 5083) recording wrote that “The ‘night ride’ is dominated by an insistent trochaic rhythm, eventually combined with a plaintive theme introduced by the woodwind. A transition leads to the ‘sunrise,’ one of Sibelius’s most vibrant portrayals of nature, with a calm grandeur that anticipates the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies.”  It is interesting that Sibelius concludes the piece in contemplative manner, rather than with a peroration.

Night Ride and Sunrise was premiered by Ukrainian pianist and conductor Alexander Siloti in St Petersburg on 23rd January 1909. He made several cuts that the composer would never have approved of. Sibelius was not in attendance at the concert.

The recording history is a little complicated. Both the Karelia Overture and Night Ride and Sunrise were recorded at the Kingsway Hall, London between 2-3 June 1955. The Symphony, at the same venue between 25-27 January 1955. Anthony Collins conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Symphony and Night Ride were released on LXT 5083 and LL1276 (USA). The Karelia Overture was issued on a 10-inch disc, LW 5209, coupled with excerpts from the Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite. In 1972, the three works were reissued on Decca Eclipse ECS 605 with reprocessed ‘stereo.’ This was an attempt at making the old monaural recordings sound better by adding reverberation and ‘tinkering’ with frequency levels. Some reviewers felt that the original recordings were ruined by this novel process.

Anthony Collins’s splendid 1955 recording of Night Ride and Sunrise can be heard on YouTube, here.