| Type: | Tone poem |
| Spring Song | |
| Native Name: | Swedish: Vårsång |
| Image Upright: | 1 |
| Border: | Yes |
| Opus: | 16 |
| Composed: | , 1895 |
| Publisher: | (1903) |
| Duration: | 8 mins. (10 mins.) |
| Premiere Location: | Vaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Premiere Conductor: | Jean Sibelius |
| Premiere Performers: | Orchestra of the Song Festival |
Spring Song (in Swedish: Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
The piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the (Finnish: Kansanvalistusseura|italics=no). Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Swedish: Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.
The work is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glocken, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.[1] Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.
The tempo marking is: Tempo moderato e sostenuto. The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of bells at the end of the song.
The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:
| Conductor | Orchestra | Time | Recording venue | Label | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra | 1973 | 8:21 | Southampton Guildhall | EMI Classics | |||
| 2 | Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | 1975 | 6:56 | Liverpool Philharmonic Hall | EMI Classics | |||
| 3 | Royal Scottish National Orchestra | 1977 | 7:10 | Glasgow City Halls | Chandos | |||
| 4 | (1) | Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1) | 1986 | 8:17 | Gothenburg Concert Hall | BIS | ||
| 5 | Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra | 1991 | 8:19 | Mosfilm Studios | Brilliant Classics | |||
| 6 | (2) | Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2) | 1994 | 7:46 | Gothenburg Concert Hall | Deutsche Grammophon | ||
| 7 | (1) | Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1) | 1999 | 8:14 | Ristinkirkko | BIS | ||
| 8 | 2002 | 8:32 | Finlandia | |||||
| 9 | (2) | Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2) | 2007 | 7:34 | Sibelius Hall | BIS | ||
| 10 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | 2007 | 8:56 | Finlandia Hall | Ondine | |||
| 11 | Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra | 2018 | 7:45 | Grieg Hall | Chandos | |||
| 12 | BBC Symphony Orchestra | 2018 | 9:03 | Watford Colosseum | Chandos |
sv:Fabian Dahlström
. Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke. Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works. 2003. Breitkopf & Härtel. Wiesbaden. de. 3-7651-0333-0.