Talk:Eduard Tubin

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I have found the First Symphony of Tubin to be very beautiful. I also very much was impressed with Tubin's "Idyllic Symphony" which I think is #4. His other symphonies are good but these are his top ones to me. His fifth Symphony is very good also. These works need repeated listenings to grasped the wealth and skill of development of this symphonist. The First and Fourth symphonies I would place in a tonal world somewhere between Sibelius and Shostokovich. The First has great changing and shifting tectonic plates of harmony that I find masterful. I wish some great conductor would champion more of the music of Eduard Tubin in the US. Jarvi's recordngs are very good.


 * (Response to anonymous...) I mostly agree (just listened to yet the third recording I've heard of the fifth symphony, over BBC3, not a commercial one I think?- except for 6/7/10 (maybe 5 actually?) I think the only recordings are the BIS cycle and a new one. I'd agree that the tonal qualities change with sym 5 and especially 6- maybe somewhere in the orbit Sibelius/Shostakovich/Honegger if that makes any sense for the first four, tending more towards/adding a leanness- especially a leanness and, well, forwardness of motion- associated with neoclassicism (with that 12-tonish tune in the finale of my own favorite, sym 7, yes) afterwards?? And of course - 'as mentioned in program notes' and all that - clever mixing of slow and fast tempi in the central movement of that work, like the 1940 cello concerto of Paul Hindemith- in both works' central mvts the central scherzo episode coexists with the slow main movement before the latter fully takes over again.


 * Jarvi by the way has conducted some Tubin in the USA when he's been here, not to disagree there but just to add. Regards - Schissel 03:14, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Tubin has much to offer
I agree, Tubin is a composer who I believe by all rights should be mentioned in the company of Sibelius, Shostakovich and perhaps William Walton (the last because they were born and died in nearly the same years).

Tubin is a perfect example of a brilliant talent with some unique and stunning pieces that was in the wrong place at the wrong time (the Austrian Franz Schreker comes to mind as another one of these, caught up in the rise of the Nazis rather than Tubin's unfortunate burial by the Soviets).

The Fourth Symphony (the Lyric) was nearly destroyed by bombing of the Soviets in 1944. The only copy of the score was actually singed by the fire from the bombing! This would have been a tragedy, as I think any live performance of the Fourth would have the audience on its feet at the conclusion. It's the most approachable of Tubin's works, and is also one of the few Symphonies ever written that is essentially built off a single theme in all movements! Tubin pulled off the same thematic magic in his Concertino for Piano and Orchestra as well as his Sonatina for Piano in D minor (1942).

Tubin could be said to take a great deal from Bartok and perhaps even Prokofiev in much of his music. His Piano Sonata 2 (1950)'The Northern Lights Sonata' has a bit of resemblance in the last movement to the same driving energy of Prokofiev's Sonata No. (7 op. 83). The third of his Three Pieces for Violin of 1933 has striking echoes of Bartok's Allegro Barbaro for piano (Sz 49) Also, the influence of Shostakovich (perhaps a sympathetic soul to Tubin's plight) can be clearly heard in the military percussion, the instrumental unisons and biting sarcasm of Tubin's Sixth Symphony (the opening of the third movement, marked 'Festoso' could very well have been written by Shostakovich!)

Nevertheless, even with all of these influences and echoes, Tubin's music comes through as his own, with some truly brilliant passages: Not one but two horrifying battles of dueling timpani in the Fifth Symphony, A sparkling opening of the Second Piano Sonata which earned it the Northern Lights nickname, and an utterly ravishing third movement of the Lyric Symphony).

I'm hoping that the celebration of Tubin's 100th birthday this year will raise his profile in the world. Even Mahler needed some conductors to champion his cause!


 * This would be the Soviet bombing that also pushed the Nazis out of the country, right? We're talking about the same? I hate very much the occupation that followed, but every single time I've seen a reference to the near-destruction of the 4th symphony it seems to be completely out of historical context. Much music and art has been destroyed in war, especially that horror of a war, but my relatives close and distant (I didn't have any close relatives in Estonia, no, and my own family got out of various countries by 1900 or so; this cannot however be said of the families of my friends) were being killed at the time. Please keep this in mind.


 * That said, I am very glad that a copy of the work was preserved, it is certainly beautiful. I'm even gladder the composer got to Sweden and wrote more; the 7th-9th, the Sinfonietta, are wonderful. (Just as I'm glad that a copy of the original of The Grand Illusion survived. Though the context/history there is quite different if one cares to look it up.) So don't mistake me: what I ask is a sense of perspective no more. Thanks. Schissel : bowl listen 03:09, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

Banned in the USSR?
The program notes to Volmer's recording of Tubin's 4th Symphony claim that all of Tubin's works were banned in the USSR (including Estonia of course) until "the ice was broken" by a performance in Estonia of the 4th Symphony on Tubin's 80th birthday. That would be 1985.

I find this remarkable because so much of Tubin's music is far from "formalist." Was it simply because it was considered nationalistic? If somebody has more information on this, it would be good to see it in Tubin's entry, which doesn't seem to mention the banning now. Opus131 (talk) 22:50, 1 July 2015 (UTC)