Luonnotar (Sibelius)

Luonnotar, Op. 70, is a single-movement tone poem for soprano and orchestra written in 1913 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece is a setting of Runo I (lines 111–242, freely adapted) of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, which tells the legend of how the goddess Luonnotar (the female spirit of nature) created the Earth. Luonnotar premiered on 10 September 1913 at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, England, with Herbert Brewer conducting the festival orchestra; the soloist was the Finnish operatic diva (and frequent Sibelius collaborator) Aino Ackté, the tone poem's dedicatee. A few months later on 12 January 1914, Ackté gave Luonnotar its Finnish premiere, with Georg Schnéevoigt conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

History


Luonnotar is thematically unrelated to an earlier project of Sibelius's by the same name from 1903–1905; that 'Luonnotar' (for which a fragment is extant) grew out of the abandoned oratorio Marjatta (without catalogue number) and, by 1906, had evolved into the orchestral tone poem Pohjola's Daughter (Pohjolan tytär, Op. 49). In 1913, Sibelius arranged Luonnotar for soprano and piano.

Instrumentation
Luonnotar is scored for the following instruments and voices, organized by family (vocalists, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):


 * Soprano
 * 2 flutes (each doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A), 1 bass clarinet (in B♭), and 2 bassoons
 * 4 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in B♭), and 3 trombones
 * Timpani (2 players)
 * Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, double basses, and 2 harps

Discography
The Hungarian-American conductor Antal Doráti and the London Symphony Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of Luonnotar in February 1969 for His Master's Voice (HMV); the soloist was the Welsh soprano Dame Gwyneth Jones. However, recordings of two earlier live performances by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra also are commercially available: first, led by the Finnish conductor Georg Schnéevoigt in 1934, with the Finnish soprano Helmi Liukkonen as soloist; and second, led by the Finnish conductor Tauno Hannikainen in 1955, with the Austro-British soprano Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as soloist. The table below lists these and other recordings:

Additionally, in 2008, BIS made the world premiere studio recording of Sibelius's transcription of Luonnotar, with the Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen and the Finnish pianist Folke Gräsbeck. The table below contains additional details about this recording:

Notes, references, and sources

 * Notes


 * References


 * Sources