Track Listing

1. Introduction
2. Kullervo's Youth
3. Kullervo And His Sister
4. Kullervo Goes To Battle
5. Kullervo's Death

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299317 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 72 minutes

Album Description
Sibelius began work on what was to become Kullervo in 1891. The public reception in 1892 was overwhelmingly positive for this nationalistic piece, with Kajanus writing "A great, rolling spring torrent of Finnish music burst upon us form the backwoods." The work was performed four times in little over a year, making Sibelius, at twenty-six, a national celebrity.

However, Sibelius' ambitions quickly widened and he wished to be recognized as an international musician - a creator of abstract works without nationalist leanings. He became dissatisfied with it and during the remainder of his lifetime, forbade any further performances. Had it not been for the sale of the score to the Kalevala Society because the composer was short of cash, it might have been destroyed in the mid-1940's along with his Eighth Symphony and other unfinished compositions.

It is Sibelius' first large-scale orchestral work and his only symphonic work with voices. Kullervo went unheard until his son-in-law, Jussi Jalas, conducted it posthumously in 1958. Robert Spano says of the work: "It's a fantastic work. I hear so much of his later works in it, the seeds of all the symphonies. It has its weak points, as he was just developing his craft, but it obviously comes out of his passion."

This recording features the young Swedish mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant and American baritone Nathan Gunn.

Personnel:
Robert Spano (conductor), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Mens' Chorus, Charlotte Hellekant (mezzo-soprano), Nathan Gunn (baritone)