This album presents a selection of Jean Sibelius’s piano works, showcasing his lifelong engagement with the instrument despite being primarily a violinist. Sibelius composed over a hundred pieces for piano, often using it as a tool for improvisation and developing orchestral ideas. His piano music can be divided into three stylistic periods.
The early works, including *Six Impromptus, Op. 5* (1893), reflect a National Romantic style influenced by Finnish folk music, runic melodies, and composers like Grieg and Tchaikovsky. The middle period, spanning 1906 to around 1920, sees a shift towards a more linear and neoclassical-impressionist idiom, mirroring the stylistic transformation in his symphonies. The later period (1923–1929) features a synthesis of his style, marked by rich contrasts, expanded harmonic depth, and refined pedal effects.
Notable works include the *Sonata in F major, Op. 12*, which foreshadows his symphonic writing with its grand form and orchestral textures, and *Kyllikki, Op. 41*, a set of three lyrical pieces that evoke Finnish mythology. Sibelius’s arrangements of six Finnish folk songs also highlight his advanced modal harmonies and anticipation of later modernist techniques.
This collection provides insight into Sibelius’s evolving style and his unique approach to piano composition, bridging folk influences, Romantic traditions, and modernist tendencies.
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