Väinämöinen's Song

Väinämöinen's Song (Finnish title: Väinön virsi; sometimes translated as Väinö's Song), Op. 110, is a single-movement cantata for mixed choir and orchestra written in 1926 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which is a setting of poem XLIII (lines 385–434) of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, is the last in a series of four cantatas from the composer's mature period—including My Own Land (Op. 92, 1918); Song of the Earth (Op. 93, 1919); and Hymn of the Earth (Op. 95, 1920). Väinämöinen's Song premiered on 26 June 1926 in Sortavala, Finland.

Väinämöinen's Song
Cantata by Jean Sibelius
The composer in 1920
Opus110
TextKalevala (poem XLIII)
LanguageFinnish
Composed1926
Premiere
Date26 June 1926

Instrumentation

Väinämöinen's Song is scored for the following instruments and voices:[1][2]

The cantata premiered on 26 June 1926 at a singing festival in Sortavala (then still part of Finland), with the Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus conducting.[3]

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Väinämöinen's Song:

Conductor Orchestra Chorus Rec.[lower-alpha 1] Time[lower-alpha 2] Venue Label Ref.
Eri Klas Finnish National Opera Orchestra Finnish National Opera Chorus 1990 9:40 Roihuvuori Church Ondine
[lower-alpha 3]
Paavo Järvi Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Estonian National Male Choir
Ellerhein Girls' Choir		 2002 8:42 Estonia Concert Hall Virgin Classics
Erato
[lower-alpha 4]
Osmo Vänskä Lahti Symphony Orchestra Dominante Choir 2004 8:53 Sibelius Hall BIS
[lower-alpha 5]

Notes, references, and sources

Notes
  1. Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  2. All runtimes are official, as printed on CD or LP liner notes. For some recordings, the notes only provide runtimes for the constituent movements; in these cases, the movement runtimes were added to obtain a total duration.
  3. E. Klas—Ondine (ODE 754-2) 1990
  4. P. Järvi—Virgin Classics (7243 5 45589 2 4) 2003
  5. O. Vänskä—BIS (CD–1565) 2006

References
  1. Goss 1996, p. 386.
  2. Levas 1986, p. 146.
  3. Barnett 2007, p. 7.

Sources
  • Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300111590.
  • Goss, Glenda Dawn (1996). "Chronology of the Works of Jean Sibelius". The Sibelius Companion. Greenwood Press. pp. 323–389. ISBN 9780313283932.
  • Levas, Santeri (1986) [1972]. Jean Sibelius: A Personal Portrait. Translated by Percy M. Young (2nd ed.). Porvo & Juva, Finland: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. ISBN 9510136085.

Further reading
  • Lascar, Pierre-Yves (2003). Sibelius: Cantatas (booklet). Paavo Järvi. Virgin Classics. p. 8–11. OCLC 52897195. 7243 5 45589 2 4.
  • Layton, Robert (1993) [1965]. Sibelius. (The Master Musicians Series) (4th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028713222.
  • Okkonen, Jukka (1990). Sibelius: Cantatas (booklet). Eri Klas, Finnish National Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Ondine. p. 5. OCLC 26017670. ODE 754-2.
  • Sirén, Vesa (2005). "Works for Choir and Orchestra". Sibelius.fi. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
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