Cor Anglais: superlative performance! Also when the cello starts a beautiful melody, takes it up to a higher pitch; then the violin carries it up another octave! And the harp: wonderfully played! Jean Sibelius is at piece now.
A black swan floats on a river in “the abode” ,Tuonela, land of the dead. The swan protects Tuonela and sings as it floats; the English Horn solo is what the swan is singing. This is the best performance I’ve heeded of this haunting tone poem and Ms.Ikeda,
I played bass clarinet in a performance of this piece a few years ago. My favorite moment was at 6:34, when all the strings are playing low and mournfully. I was surrounded by this ethereal, captivating sound that threatened to take me away.
That deep, internal feeling of transport.....that moment when you feel at one with the music as it enters your soul and gently takes you along with it to a wonderful place.
Unglaublich schön, das Englischhorn-solo!! Eins meiner absoluten Lieblingsstücke für dieses wunderbare und leider zu selten gespielte Instrument !! Wonderful!
Yes, the Cor Anglais is wonderful, but how can one not think of the glories of the Cello as well-it’s range of expression, from dark despair to soaring lyricism,. Little wonder it has so many passionate works written for it and so many passionate players.
haunting enchanting moving and beautiful all at the same time.What an amazing piece this is.Great performance especially from the lonely solo cor anglais.Absolutely blown away:)
Also, having attempted to play this solo myself, I know how incredibly difficult it is to play, & therefore just how brilliant the soloist is in this performance!
One midnight when I could not sleep in bed, gradually coming up to my mind and it hit at last this "The Swan of Tuonela" which record disk was presented by a girl with whom I had got around long years before. Presenting this, what did she want to make appeal to me? We, Japanese of 70s could not well open our mouth of one's wish straightly . Through out my life, many missing I have had. However the record disk is still in my room.
That is a beautiful testimony. This piece also affects me positively, bringing up a whole string of good memories of people I've known and admired, respected, and loved. I will play this piece often in the rest of my days on Earth. Yours was very well written. Thank you.
It is not only Japanese people that can not open their mouth and tell what they are missing, this disease is spread around the world. So thank you for your dream. And the swan of Tuonela is a wise swan, she will understand.
And the story goes that on that day in September, when Sibelius lay dying in the little box bed downstairs in Ainola, the swans preparing to migrate from the lake out side his window, (the swans that inspired the finale of the 5th symphony,) one broke from the ascending flock to circle the house once and then rejoined the others. Those who saw it, believed his soul went with them.
After reading your comments and listening to this piece at the same time, a renewed feeling emerged inside me....something wonderous and beautiful. Haven't heard this music since I was a teenager, some 50-60 years ago, originally introduced to me by my father who loved it as much as I did.
Many ears ago, I was at Ainola, the building named after Sibelius wife. It is now a museum. But it was bad timing, it was a monday, and the museum was closed. I think it was there he struggled with his eight symphonie, and at last burned it up, but that is not verified. As it is not verified about the swan circling around the house, taking his soul to a better place. But it is nice to think about it. As many from his time said, Janne (as he was called by his family, not Jean) had the looks of an eagle, and it is strange to think that a swan would take an eagle to a better place. But wonders will never cease.
This is a very fine interpretation, I specially like the lady with the English Horn. Now Lemminkäinen has reached Tuonela, the land of death, from which he astonishing returns to life. Greetings from Sweden!
One of the most difficult EH solo, where all the range of the instrument is exposed. Like most the EH orchestral repertoire, the orchestra plays PPP or is basically Tacet to allow the melancolic tone of the instrument thrilling . Perfectly Handled, Bravo!!!
Hard to comprehend how something so beautiful such as this came to be...someone from this Earth was somehow endowed with the talent and the vision and inspiration to compose this....and another group of people centuries later and thousands of miles away were likewise inspired to spend a collective century perfecting their talents and skills to bring forth Sebelius' spirit...this is not the work of mortals, this is the work of God. I truly believe that.
Ed Steadham, thank you for your poetic and thought provoking commentary of this stunningly beautiful piece. Your impression and interpretation is very much in harmony with mine. This is the first time I've heard this since my father first introduced it to me when I was teenager, some 50-60 years ago. The melody brought back such a flood of previous, sacred memories.
Another piece of swan without that high nose is the national bird of Finland, singing swan in finnish - symbol of almost hopeles melancoly, from the happiest country in the world...
I have loved this piece since college. We played it in orchestra. Being a bassoon player, I was in the row behind the flutes/oboes and was directly behind the English Horn player. It might not sound difficult, and technically it probably isn't. But the BREATH CONTROLL needed is crazy hard. Also, in playing in different orchestras over the years, it is amazing to me how many oboists have never heard of it!
I first heard this on Performance Today with Fred Child. It brought me to tears; so plaintive and mournful. The English horn perfectly captures the essence of a swan. From Wikipedia: "The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan floating through Tuonela, the realm of the dead. Lemminkäinen, the hero of the epic, has been tasked with killing the sacred swan; but on the way, he is shot with a poisoned arrow and dies. In the next part of the story he is restored to life." So sad, yet uplifting! 💖🦢
One of the best (ever) pieces that lets you relax, but be interested, calm but alert, does not make you doze-off but brings you an insight (your own version). The best of any compositions (well no piece is better by any composer) in the history of the Classical genre. But this is just my own crummy opinion(!) 🙂
Absolutely wonderful! To my ear, an intermediate stage in the free pursuit of an environmental rendition of reality through music. We who live in The North hear this. Let the musical quest continue. One must needs hand it to Sibelius. Russians seem, in this genre (the nuances of Nature and Her sounds) just a bit off, or maybe Asiatic, and thus unfamiliar, to the Western ear. And I am about 90 degrees west right now.
'Y qué me dicen de la cellista? En la Filarmónica de Berlin hay dos señoritas jóvenes que suenan divinamente ese instrumento tan hermoso y tan difícil. Después de la llorada Jacqueline DuPré no había vuelto a oir ninguna. Esta joven japonesa, cuyo nombre no encuentro en este espacio lamentablemente, me parece también muy "gifted", o "muy dotada", decimos en castellano. Saludos desde la Argentina. Amelia Sabin Paz.
Depth of view is unsure, half memories are almost a feeling and cannot tell you that sadness is here or leaving, happiness will betray you. D Laird would be witness
Shoko Ikeda is from now on my hero, the way she plays the English Horn in this is breathtaking. By the way, isnt the English Horn the most beautiful sounding instrument in the orchestra?
@@staffanolofsson8201 Staffan, it is comforting and encouraging to know we are not alone in our love and appreciation of this soul-touching music. Maybe there's also some consolation in realizing we are a breed apart in our ability to perceive more deeply the grandeur it offers us. I consider this a gift that I was fortunate enough to receive from my father.
The solo as well as the strings are more intens in the BPO version. They give a lot more direction to the melody wich makes it even warmer. Thats the thing that makes the difference between a good orchestra and a superb one like BPO
Karajan was the least musical of conductors, he distorted everything and punched things up. He was a genius of sorts and the BPO under him was an amazing machine but under agreat musicianw like Furt
The swan is not dreaming of flight. In Finnish mythology, the swan of Tuonela lives at and swims along the Tuonela river which is a slow-moving, black stream that separates the sphere of the living from Tuonela, the land of the dead whereto people go when they die. In Sibelius's work, one postulates one can hear the swan sing, rendered by the English horn, as she swims by. The swan has been depicted in other forms of art, too, and is originally described in Kalevala, the Finnish national epic poem. Swans were regarded sacred in pre-Christian Finnish ethos.
It was a literary figure, "as if the swan dreamed of flight," so we can imagine the swan as thinking and desiring. It is a translation of the feelings that this beautiful music can convey.
OK. I do not get that association at all. I bethink myself of the swan's being mournful albeit not despondent in her singing, as she glides along the river, as is her wont.
fantastic playing..a very difficult piece just in counting...times have to subdivide and go from 3 to 9....difficult to put together,and needs a very good conductor . A piece not for orchastra sight reading
Can someone who knows music tell me the story of this piece in time with the music? I know the story, but I’m not sure how it matches up with the different parts. Thank you.
It's music. Best not to look too hard for episodic correspondence throughout it. Like ekphrastic writing, it uses the Finnish legend as a springboard to enter an atmosphere and create within it. This way of working among creative artists is quite common.
I thought she would suffocate at one point. :) Classical scores are the most unfair - while one musician is on the brink of collapse, the one sitting right next to her is idly killing her time throughout the whole piece.
Cor Anglais: superlative performance! Also when the cello starts a beautiful melody, takes it up to a higher pitch; then the violin carries it up another octave! And the harp: wonderfully played! Jean Sibelius is at piece now.
A black swan floats on a river in “the abode” ,Tuonela, land of the dead. The swan protects Tuonela and sings as it floats; the English Horn solo is what the swan is singing. This is the best performance I’ve heeded of this haunting tone poem and Ms.Ikeda,
the cor anglaise player is very fine indeed.
I played bass clarinet in a performance of this piece a few years ago. My favorite moment was at 6:34, when all the strings are playing low and mournfully. I was surrounded by this ethereal, captivating sound that threatened to take me away.
I agree.
That deep, internal feeling of transport.....that moment when you feel at one with the music as it enters your soul and gently takes you along with it to a wonderful place.
Agree, but wish he had done more with it from there.
If this doesn't get played at my funeral, I'm not attending
LOL!
Unglaublich schön, das Englischhorn-solo!! Eins meiner absoluten Lieblingsstücke für dieses wunderbare und leider zu selten gespielte Instrument !! Wonderful!
This single piece proves to me that the Cor Anglais is the most beautiful instrument ever made......so gorgeous!
and among the most expensive...
I wholly agree. There is no other instrument that surpasses the cor anglais in beauty and tone.
Yes, the Cor Anglais is wonderful, but how can one not think of the glories of the Cello as well-it’s range of expression, from dark despair to soaring lyricism,. Little wonder it has so many passionate works written for it and so many passionate players.
@@gavasiarobinssson5108 try a bass oboe
@@Kuesa there is. The cello. But I agree the cor anglais is exceedingly beautiful too.
haunting enchanting moving and beautiful all at the same time.What an amazing piece this is.Great performance especially from the lonely solo cor anglais.Absolutely blown away:)
Best Swan of Tuonela performance i've ever seen! Thank you Japan!
I thought your icon was a bug on my screen :/
I agree, my favorite version.
Isn’t it stunning
Also, having attempted to play this solo myself, I know how incredibly difficult it is to play, & therefore just how brilliant the soloist is in this performance!
What more can be said? Marvelous music played equally marvelously. Beautiful solo English horn performance. Bravo!
Fantastic English horn solo here! Just gorgeous. Very deep, serenely dark tone with perfect dynamic control.
One midnight when I could not sleep in bed, gradually coming up to my mind and it hit at last this "The Swan of Tuonela" which record disk was presented by a girl with whom I had got around long years before. Presenting this, what did she want to make appeal to me? We, Japanese of 70s could not well open our mouth of one's wish straightly . Through out my life, many missing I have had. However the record disk is still in my room.
That is a beautiful testimony. This piece also affects me positively, bringing up a whole string of good memories of people I've known and admired, respected, and loved. I will play this piece often in the rest of my days on Earth. Yours was very well written. Thank you.
Συγχαρητήρια ,για την από βάθους καρδιάς εξομολόγηση !!!!
So beautifully written. The girl gave you her love through this music, and you still have it.
It is not only Japanese people that can not open their mouth and tell what they are missing, this disease is spread around the world. So thank you for your dream. And the swan of Tuonela is a wise swan, she will understand.
ほんとうに美しい演奏です。ありがとう！
Known mostly to geologists (and paleontologists), Finland has some of the oldest rocks on the planet and Sibelius music somehow presents this.
And the story goes that on that day in September, when Sibelius lay dying in the little box bed downstairs in Ainola, the swans preparing to migrate from the lake out side his window, (the swans that inspired the finale of the 5th symphony,) one broke from the ascending flock to circle the house once and then rejoined the others. Those who saw it, believed his soul went with them.
Nice bit of info,
After reading your comments and listening to this piece at the same time, a renewed feeling emerged inside me....something wonderous and beautiful. Haven't heard this music since I was a teenager, some 50-60 years ago, originally introduced to me by my father who loved it as much as I did.
Many ears ago, I was at Ainola, the building named after Sibelius wife. It is now a museum. But it was bad timing, it was a monday, and the museum was closed. I think it was there he struggled with his eight symphonie, and at last burned it up, but that is not verified. As it is not verified about the swan circling around the house, taking his soul to a better place. But it is nice to think about it. As many from his time said, Janne (as he was called by his family, not Jean) had the looks of an eagle, and it is strange to think that a swan would take an eagle to a better place. But wonders will never cease.
As hauntingly beautiful a performance of this piece as ever there was. Proof that great music knows no "east" or"west".
Shoku Ikeda -- Uberwoman!
So at ease, & her calm reflects this wondrous piece....🙏
Magnifique. Une grande artiste. Excellent violoncelle solo, également.
This is a very fine interpretation, I specially like the lady with the English Horn. Now Lemminkäinen has reached Tuonela, the land of death, from which he astonishing returns to life. Greetings from Sweden!
What a marvelous soloist, miss Ikeda!
Beautifully played, excellent soloist
Superb and magical! Bravo NHK Symphony and Maestro.
Obra maravillosa de Sibelius por su belleza y profundidad meditativa. Muy buena ejecucion de la orquesta y de la oboista.
Masterful - Thank You for this.
What a gorgeous work! Thank you.
One of the most difficult EH solo, where all the range of the instrument is exposed. Like most the EH orchestral repertoire, the orchestra plays PPP or is basically Tacet to allow the melancolic tone of the instrument thrilling . Perfectly Handled, Bravo!!!
This piece is hard as HECK to play bruh six whole flats I actually cry whenever my conductor goes “bring the Sibelius”
Oops wrong piece
@@franklinphan3572 Ooops, wrong comment.
Beautifully played - thanks so much for sharing. A true delight.
Hard to comprehend how something so beautiful such as this came to be...someone from this Earth was somehow endowed with the talent and the vision and inspiration to compose this....and another group of people centuries later and thousands of miles away were likewise inspired to spend a collective century perfecting their talents and skills to bring forth Sebelius' spirit...this is not the work of mortals, this is the work of God. I truly believe that.
Ed Steadham, thank you for your poetic and thought provoking commentary of this stunningly beautiful piece. Your impression and interpretation is very much in harmony with mine. This is the first time I've heard this since my father first introduced it to me when I was teenager, some 50-60 years ago. The melody brought back such a flood of previous, sacred memories.
Correction:. (Here we go again), "PRECIOUS", sacred memories.
The bitterness of my brother is sorrowful and grieving.
uma das mais musicas feitas até hoje. Grande Sbelius. Fantástica solista!!
and again, perfect
Beautiful work of art. The orchestra did an excellent job in articulating the style of the piece. Great job.
Gorgeous
完璧さを聞きたいときはNHKを聞きます。Simply beautiful.
haunting Lovely. Very gifted English horn player
Yes she is. Thanks for watching my video.
i'm very thankful that the japanese have such an enjoyment of classical music and the ability to play so wonderfully.
The double reed instruments are among my favorites. i play bassoon, myself and I find that this lady plays outstandgingly well.
Sibelius has always been appreciated and well played in Japan.
A beautiful performance.
Bravo ! Bravíssimo!👏🏼👏🏼
A lonely swan who has lost it's mate, Haunting and beautiful.
Could be, but this swan never has mate. It is the mythical swan swimming in the dark river between our world and the world beyond.
Fabulous!!!
Another piece of swan without that high nose is the national bird of Finland, singing swan in finnish - symbol of almost hopeles melancoly, from the happiest country in the world...
Sin palabras.. hermosoo !! y excelente calidad de audio/video
Gracias por ver mi video.
+dondokodokodon Usted las merece por regalarnos esta joya. Saludos cordiales.
Excellent !!!
I love it
I have loved this piece since college. We played it in orchestra. Being a bassoon player, I was in the row behind the flutes/oboes and was directly behind the English Horn player. It might not sound difficult, and technically it probably isn't. But the BREATH CONTROLL needed is crazy hard.
Also, in playing in different orchestras over the years, it is amazing to me how many oboists have never heard of it!
wonderful english horn player
I first heard this on Performance Today with Fred Child. It brought me to tears; so plaintive and mournful. The English horn perfectly captures the essence of a swan. From Wikipedia: "The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan floating through Tuonela, the realm of the dead. Lemminkäinen, the hero of the epic, has been tasked with killing the sacred swan; but on the way, he is shot with a poisoned arrow and dies. In the next part of the story he is restored to life." So sad, yet uplifting! 💖🦢
Ah, Fred Child is my go-to host midday here in Bloomington on WFIU.
@@ecphorizer Isn't he wonderful?! He has such soothing voice. Very informative without being pretentious.
This song gives me chills. The percussion feels like I'm on a plane taking flight and I'm finally soaring in the sky.
Bravissimo❤
Perfect
love this piece, dread, hope, fear and pain. when music feeds your emotional state then it's truly special.
今更ながら、池田さんの演奏、素晴らしいです。遙か北の国フインランド(行ったことありませんが)の神秘的な森と湖をそうぞうして９分１６秒を楽しみました．有り難うございました。
I am no musician but this is captivating.
Exceptional
Perfect.
Bautiful English Horn sound.
F.Lorée 125A
Thanks....just thanks !
Wow. Miss Ikeda is gifted, to say the least.
Yes, she is. Thanks for your comment.
One of the best (ever) pieces that lets you relax, but be interested, calm but alert, does not make you doze-off but brings you an insight (your own version). The best of any compositions (well no piece is better by any composer) in the history of the Classical genre. But this is just my own crummy opinion(!) 🙂
Congratulations to Shoku Ikeda for a wonderful performance of this very highly inspired piece of music
Japanese are very good at playing Sibelius.
Seriously. Captivating...
Absolutely wonderful! To my ear, an intermediate stage in the free pursuit of an environmental rendition of reality through music. We who live in The North hear this. Let the musical quest continue. One must needs hand it to Sibelius. Russians seem, in this genre (the nuances of Nature and Her sounds) just a bit off, or maybe Asiatic, and thus unfamiliar, to the Western ear. And I am about 90 degrees west right now.
That was a wonderful performance! Wish I could have been there. You should all be proud, I'm sure the composer would have loved it. Subscribed !
Amazing. Congrats miss Ikeda. No words avalaible
'Y qué me dicen de la cellista? En la Filarmónica de Berlin hay dos señoritas jóvenes que suenan divinamente ese instrumento tan hermoso y tan difícil. Después de la llorada Jacqueline DuPré no había vuelto a oir ninguna. Esta
joven japonesa, cuyo nombre no encuentro en este espacio lamentablemente, me parece también muy "gifted", o
"muy dotada", decimos en castellano. Saludos desde la Argentina. Amelia Sabin Paz.
I love this piece , mainly that English horn solo .. !!!
池田さんのイングリッシュホルン本当に好きすぎる
Depth of view is unsure, half memories are almost a feeling and cannot tell you that sadness is here or leaving, happiness will betray you. D Laird would be witness
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Bravissimo for the NHK Symphony Orchestra and maestro Tadaaki Otaka!
Shoko Ikeda is from now on my hero, the way she plays the English Horn in this is breathtaking. By the way, isnt the English Horn the most beautiful sounding instrument in the orchestra?
Ethereal music.
I imagine the cor anglais to be the swan !
I do too! The tone is perfect to evoke a swan.
It makes me sad to see such a sparse audience for such incredible music.
But now it has 140 000 listeners on RUclips. You are not alone.
@@staffanolofsson8201 In my heart of hearts, I am "there" now....and spellbound.
@@christophermurphy4982 Chistopher, you made me listen to this, again, and now Im also spellbound. By the way, we are now 150 000.
@@staffanolofsson8201 Staffan, it is comforting and encouraging to know we are not alone in our love and appreciation of this soul-touching music. Maybe there's also some consolation in realizing we are a breed apart in our ability to perceive more deeply the grandeur it offers us. I consider this a gift that I was fortunate enough to receive from my father.
The solo as well as the strings are more intens in the BPO version. They give a lot more direction to the melody wich makes it even warmer. Thats the thing that makes the difference between a good orchestra and a superb one like BPO
Karajan was the least musical of conductors, he distorted everything and punched things up. He was a genius of sorts and the BPO under him was an amazing machine but under agreat musicianw like Furt
🙄
I have seen many white swans in my life, but never a black one. But maybe it is never to late, maybe I will see a black swan in my future?
Like the swan dreaming of the flight...
The swan is not dreaming of flight. In Finnish mythology, the swan of Tuonela lives at and swims along the Tuonela river which is a slow-moving, black stream that separates the sphere of the living from Tuonela, the land of the dead whereto people go when they die. In Sibelius's work, one postulates one can hear the swan sing, rendered by the English horn, as she swims by. The swan has been depicted in other forms of art, too, and is originally described in Kalevala, the Finnish national epic poem. Swans were regarded sacred in pre-Christian Finnish ethos.
It was a literary figure, "as if the swan dreamed of flight," so we can imagine the swan as thinking and desiring. It is a translation of the feelings that this beautiful music can convey.
OK. I do not get that association at all. I bethink myself of the swan's being mournful albeit not despondent in her singing, as she glides along the river, as is her wont.
His projection is also feasible and beautiful.
Merchant Loop I think it's her swan song.
This is A requiem for a swan. [by the swan itself]
That's how I 'hear it' anyway
6:35 to 7:20 is superb, my favorite part.
and the name of the english horn player?
Shoko Ikeda
***** thank you?
+Paulo Arantes And who is the excellent cellist lady? Anybody knows ?
She is Mrs. Kaeko Mukouyama who is one of the greatest Japanese cellist.
fantastic playing..a very difficult piece just in counting...times have to subdivide and go from 3 to 9....difficult to put together,and needs a very good conductor . A piece not for orchastra sight reading
I wonder if John Barry got some of his influences from this, especially at 6:20 with the horns. So beautiful.
Can someone who knows music tell me the story of this piece in time with the music? I know the story, but I’m not sure how it matches up with the different parts. Thank you.
It's music. Best not to look too hard for episodic correspondence throughout it. Like ekphrastic writing, it uses the Finnish legend as a springboard to enter an atmosphere and create within it. This way of working among creative artists is quite common.
@@noriemeha Excellent description. Thank you.👍🏼
I'd really want to know that Emils Darzins' "Vientula Priede" sounded like if it sounded similar to this... Too bad most of his work is destroyed...
どうしたって千花ちゃんが浮かんでくる
The girls really stole the show here.
I thought she would suffocate at one point. :) Classical scores are the most unfair - while one musician is on the brink of collapse, the one sitting right next to her is idly killing her time throughout the whole piece.
池田さま、美しい...
このメーカーのコンセルヴァトワール式は、未認知の違反品！
Perfect