Symphony No. 7

Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 had its world premiere in Stockholm on March 24 in 1924, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.  Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 7 is the only one of Sibelius’ symphonies to have premiered outside Finland, and it is also the most famous piece that the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has premiered. At the time of its premiere, the composition was titled Fantasia sinfonica, and it became Symphony No. 7 at a later date. Symphony No. 7 was also performed at the October 2002 concerts celebrating 100 years of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Alan Gilbert was the conductor on that occasion. 

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 7 C major op 105 (1924)

Duration approx. 22 minutes

”Have Symphonies VI and VII ’in my head.’ As well as the revised Symph. V.” The entry in Sibelius’ diary from December 18, 1917 is the first time the Seventh symphony is expressly mentioned. The last time he touches on it is on March 2, 1924: ”This night, finished with Fantasia sinfonica I.” It is not possible to follow his work with this symphony as closely as the two previous ones since his diary entries diminished drastically in number during the 1920s. But there is material that finally ended up in the Seventh symphony from as early as 1914, in his sketches for the Fifth. The process from the first sketches to the final result took at least eight years.

Originally, Sibelius had imagined a work in several movements, but by the summer of 1923, when the most intense compositional phase began, he had already decided that there was to be only one movement. Therefore the work was titled ”Fantasia sinfonica I”. The work was premiered under that name on March 24, 1924 in Stockholm, and Sibelius himself conducted what is now called the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Other works on the program were the First symphony op 39 (1900) and the Violin Concerto op 47 (1905) with Julius Ruthström as soloist.

The next day, Sibelius reported in a letter to his wife Aino: ”Yesterday concert, with great success. My new work is likely one of my best. The timbre and the ”color” powerful. Today no newspapers are printed, so I cannot say how the so-called critics feel. But the musicians (Armas [Järnefelt, conductor of the Royal Opera in Stockholm and Sibelius’ brother-in-law] and Stenhammar) were extremely enthusiastic.”

When the reviews came they were positive, even though the music was not easy to understand: ”If the work bore a poetic motto or even just a name that associated to poetic ideas, its suggestive power would undoubtedly be even greater,” wrote the composer and critic Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. 

The Roman numeral I after ”Fantasia sinfonica” implies that Sibelius had at least one more similar sort of work in his thoughts. This might be the Symphonic poem Tapiola op 112 (1926), or possibly the Eighth symphony, which he worked on until he finally burned the manuscript during the 1940s.

”I plan to let the musical ideas and their development in my spirit decide the form.” The entry in Sibelius’ diary from May 8, 1912 does not refer to the Seventh symphony, but is probably in any event the best description of the form of the work.

The first concrete musical idea is the ”adagio theme” that is found in many different versions in the composer’s sketchbook. This theme with its different variations, of which one can say that there are two somewhat different branches, grows and develops in all three main sections of the Symphony (Adagio, Vivacissimo, and Allegro moderato), and basically decides the form of the work.

The most spectacular variant of the fundamental thematic idea is the majestic trombone theme in C major, which is heard for the first time after the hymn like string polyphony in the adagio section that Serge Koussevitzky called ”Sibelius’ Parsifal.”

— Ilkka Oramo
English translation: George Kentros