User:Silence of Järvenpää/Work (e)

En saga
Tone poem by Jean Sibelius
The young composer (c. 1891)
Catalogue	Op. 9
Composed	1891–92 (r. 1902)
Publisher	Breitkopf & Härtel
Duration	Approx. 18 minutes
Premiere
Date	16 February 1893 (1893-02-16)
Location	Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
Conductor	Jean Sibelius
Performers	Helsinki Orchestral Society

En saga (in Finnish: Satu; sometimes translated to English as A Fairy Tale, A Saga, or A Legend), Op. 9, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written from 1891 to 1892 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which likely began as a septet or octet for flute, clarinet, and string ensemble before evolving into an orchestral tone poem, premiered on 16 February 1893 in Helsinki with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Society. A decade later, in 1902, Sibelius substantially revised En saga in response to an invitation from Ferruccio Busoni to conduct the piece in Berlin; the tone poem thus stands alongside the Lemminkäinen Suite (Op. 22), the Violin Concerto (Op. 47), The Oceanides (Op. 73), and the Fifth Symphony (Op. 82) as one of Sibelius' most overhauled works. The Berlin concert, which occurred a fortnight after Robert Kajanus had premiered the revised piece in Helsinki on 2 November, finally brought Sibelius the German breakthrough he had long desired.

Uncommonly for a Sibelius tone poem, En saga is without program or literary source. Nevertheless, the adventurous, evocative character of the music has encouraged many listeners to venture their own interpretations, among them a fantasy landscape (such as that by the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela), a hunting expedition, a bard's storytelling, and the essence of Finnish people. Sibelius routinely declined to state a program, although in the 1930s, he conceded that, if one must find an inspiration, the tone poem owed its nature not to the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, but rather to Iceland's Eddas. By the 1940s, however, Sibelius had reverted to his previous position, describing the work instead as "the expression of a certain state of mind"—one with an unspecified, "painful" autobiographical component—for which "all literary interpretations [were] totally alien".

Critics have largely praised En saga as a masterpiece of "astonishing power and originality" that, stylistically, exhibits Sibelius's "personal brand of musical primitivism". Moreover, the revised version of the tone poem is often described as being of superior craftsmanship relative to the youthful rawness of its predecessor. The first (and to date only) recording of the original version was made in 1995 by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. A typical performance of the final version of the piece lasts about 18 minutes, some four minutes fewer than its predecessor.

History

Robert Kajanus (left) asked Sibelius to compose a piece for his orchestra; an ad from Nya Pressen (right) announcing En saga's 1893 premiere.

Composition

Although the creative origins of En saga remain somewhat uncertain, it appears as though the material that would become En saga may have begun as, and thus evolved from, a septet or octet for flute, clarinet, and string ensemble that the composer had begun in 1890–91, during which time he was a student in Vienna under Robert Fuchs and Karl Goldmark. (This chamber piece, however, has never been found.) Following the success of the choral symphony Kullervo in 1891, Robert Kajanus, founder and chief conductor of the Helsinki Orchestral Society, requested from Sibelius a purely orchestral piece, albeit one "in a more popular style" that would not make "too great demands on [the general public's] powers of concentration and comprehension"; in the 1930s, Sibelius told his biographer, Karl Ekman, that the result of this invitation was the orchestral tone poem En saga.

Later in life, however, Sibelius dismissed Kajanus's influence, telling a second biographer, Eric Ringbom, in the 1950s that En saga actually had not been the result Kajanus's offer: "... Nothing came of it. Instead I completed the orchestral work I had already started and to which I gave the name En saga ... I did not comply with his request ... to write 'a short Da capo piece'". That Sibelius's statements to Ekman and to Ringbom are inconsistent is, perhaps, a sign either that Sibelius wished to downplay the influence of his on-again-off-again friend/rival decades after the latter's death (Kajanus had died in 1933) or that he was eager to dispel any notion that En saga was of less seriousness than his other compositions.

The autograph manuscript of the original 1892 version of En saga does not survive, although a manuscript and complete set of orchestral parts are preserved in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra collection. The copyist for these documents remains unknown; although surviving invoices indicate that two copyists Sibelius typically employed, August Österberg and Ernst Röllig, each copied the score, in July 1895 and December 1898, respectively, neither the surviving manuscript nor the orchestral parts are in the hand of either man. Most likely the documents were produced in 1901 by an unidentified copyist for the conductor Georg Schnéevoigt, who conducted the original version of the tone poem during his concert tour of Riga.

Revision

In 1902, the Italian composer, conductor, and pianist, Ferruccio Busoni, began a series of concerts (eventually 12 in all, from 1902–09) with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonie's Beethovenshaal (Beethoven Hall). According to Della Couling, Busoni's biographer, the concerts courted controversy from the beginning: Busoni's decision to feature new, modern (largely non-German/Austrian) music in a city famous for its devotion to celebrated homegrown talent only reinforced the perception in Berlin that Busoni was a bit of a "maverick". In June, Busoni invited Sibelius, his longtime friend, to conduct En saga (he also suggested as substitutes both the Second Symphony and the tone poem The Wood Nymph) at the beginning of November:

I am planning a number of concerts of new music in Berlin... whose purpose will be to introduce little-known music of real merit. You shall in this scheme play a leading part in one of them. Will you do me the honor of conducting En saga? At the beginning of November. The Philharmonic Orchestra. Two rehearsals. I beg you to give your word not to disappoint my hopes. I watch with the greatest delight your German successes which I foresaw as a certainty.

— Ferruccio Busoni, in a June 1902 letter to Sibelius

Sibelius seems to have countered with a choral work (possibly the recently completed cantata The Origin of Fire), since Busoni later replied, "Unfortunately I cannot give myself up to the uncertainty and inconvenience caused by singers ... Therefore, I believe we had better stick to the 'pure' orchestra". Although Sibelius remained undecided between the Second Symphony and En saga until October, he eventually opted for the tone poem in revised form. Sibelius took the decision to revise En saga while summering in Tvärminne (Hanko), as evidenced by a July 28 letter Axel Carpelan, Sibelius's friend and patron, wrote to his cousin after having visited the composer in Tvärminne. Nevertheless, delay ensued: Sibelius did not receive the manuscript in Tvärminne until (at least) September 24. Up against the November deadline, Sibelius raced to complete the revisions in a month, and to save time, he likely reused pages from the original manuscript that required little alteration. According to Wicklund, it is this technique that probably accounts for the fact that the autograph manuscript of the original version does not survive.

Performances

Italian composer, Ferrucio Busoni (c. 1911), a friend of Sibelius's who provided him with the opportunity to conduct the revised version of En saga in Berlin in 1902

The original version of the tone poem premiered on 16 February 1893 at Solemnity Hall of the University of Helsinki with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Society; the concert program also included Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite II and Schumann's Manfred, as well as songs by various composers, all of which Kajanus conducted. As noted above, both Kajanus and Schnéevoigt included En saga on various subsequent concert tours.

German breakthrough

Although Sibelius had overhauled En saga expressly for the Busoni concert, the premiere of the revised version of the tone poem fell not to Berlin but to Helsinki on 2 November 1902, with Kajanus conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Society; the program also included Svendsen's Second Symphony and Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1. While Finnish critics praised En saga, there was a palpable sense the Helsinki concert was merely a dress rehearsal for the big Berlin unveiling. The Berlin concert was indeed an important event for Sibelius: not only would it mark just the second time he had conducted abroad, but it would also give him the opportunity to present personally his art to a discerning Central European audience. Finnish critics sought to buoy Sibelius by writing that, in their opinion, En saga was worthy of performance abroad, while the Finnish newspapers promoted the forthcoming concert heavily. A few days later, the stakes became even clearer: the Berlin critics savaged the first of Busoni's concerts on 8 November, the program of which included selections from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, the Overture to Saint-Saëns' opera Les Barbares, and Sinding's Rondo Infinito.

This was the environment into which Sibelius stepped as second on Busoni's 15 November program, which also included Delius's orchestral nocturne Paris, Théophile Ysaÿe's Piano Concerto, and Ödön Mihalovich's ballad The Death of Pan ("my fellow competitors", as Sibelius referred to them in a 12–13 November letter to his wife, Aino). Sibelius was under constant stress: during the journey to Germany, he labored over the orchestral parts, many of which contained copy errors; upon arrival, he fumed over being second on the program and was annoyed that the promised rehearsals had both been scheduled for 13 November. Nevertheless, the rehearsals went well and the players reacted favorably to the tone poem: as Sibelius told Aino, "It is so beautiful... Busoni even embraced me".

Beethoven Hall (c. 1902) of the old Philharmonie (the building was destroyed in 1944 during the war), where at the Busoni concerts occurred.

The Berlin critics' reaction to the second concert, however, was hostile. Otto Lessmann of Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung described the performance as "painful", noting acerbically, "If steps forward in art should be illustrated in such works, the muse would viel her head"; while, Rudolph Buck opined in Berliner Neueste Nachrichten, "After the complete fiasco of the second concert, the announcement that these orchestral concerts would be continued in the autumn of 1903 sounded little short of blasphemous". Nonetheless, it appears as though Sibelius emerged more or less unscathed; indeed, the consensus opinion was that En saga was "the only valuable work" on the program. The positive reviews in the wake of the concert clearly lifted Sibelius's spirits. Following the concert, a confident Sibelius recounted for his wife the quality of both his art and his conducting:

It went very well. My En saga was the best novelty, I think. I was very calm and conducted well... The main thing is that I can conduct a world-class orchestra. And well! ... I am so calm and sure about my art now. I have been acknowledged as an accomplished 'artist'... We could break through anywhere. And brilliantly.

— Jean Sibelius, in a series of letters to his wife, Aino Sibelius, dated 16–17 November 1902

As Tawaststjerna notes, thanks to En saga, at last the "ice had been broken for Sibelius in Germany", a success for which he had long hoped. Sibelius celebrated as Busoni's guest at a "lavish" dinner party.

Orchestration

• Woodwind: 2 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), 2 bassoons
• Brass: 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba
• Percussion: bass drum, cymbals, triangle
• Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses

Structure

Hurwitz (p. 135)

The entire structure is based on repetition through variation in tempo and tone color. The form is simplicity itself:

A B C B C B C A

A = an introduction, beginning with a tune on quacking woodwinds, and continuing with a long, lyrical theme for cellos (at first) against flowing ostinatos in the upper strings. Cello's melody repeats and Sibelius jacks up the tension until an agitated accelerando full of pounding bass drum leads to the actual first theme on solo viola.

B = first theme on solo viola. Its initial phrase arises from the introduction's quacking woodwinds.

C = second theme is a vigorous dance, opening with four repeated notes (melody similar to Dvorak's The Water Goblin)

Sibelius repeats both themes with wonderfully varied orchestrations, driving to a huge climax.

(here, should be through A B C B C)

The third cycle [B C] of variations beings softly with B, and then slows down to a stealthy crawl for C, before stopping completely.

With supreme finesse, the introduction [A] returns sadly on solo strings, then the original quacking woodwinds. The wakes up the rest of the orchestra, and the lyrical cello tine [A] echoes wildly in the brass against franticly swirling violins and woodwinds. The panic increases, and with it the punishing force of the bass drum, until the music quite literally slams into a brick wall at top speed.

Sibelius [continues A] gives the solo clarinet a mournful dirge on A's main theme, and the work concludes very softly, darkly muttering the rhythm of B [in the cellos]

Layton (p. 96–99)

Rich in melodic variety, although its themes are very different from the pregnant ideas encountered in the symphonies. The thematic variety is matched by considerable tonal freedom. The work opens in A minor and ends in E-flat minor, its furthermost pole, while the most important key area of the work is C minor and its relative major, E-flat. Apart from the coda, which like the introduction, is dominated by the first theme, there are two sections of relative tonal stability.

[Looks like he sees introduction and postlude as being the first theme = A]

Sonata form Seems to see FOUR THEMES (?!)

Reception

Critical opinion as to the merit of En saga has been overwhelmingly positive, and today the piece is counted among Sibelius' masterpieces; nevertheless, the revised version of the tone poem is often described as being superior to its predecessor. Following the 16 February 1893 premiere of the original version of the tone poem, the critics were (largely) on Sibelius' side: writing in Päivälehti, Oskar Merikanto ________, while the Karl Wasenius (aka BIS) wrote in Hufvudstadsbladet _______. Furthermore, Karl Flodin in Nya Pressen proclaimed ______, while Otto Ehrström in Uusi Suometar ___________.

the revised version of the tone poem is often described as being superior to its predecessor. Harold Johnson in particular dwells on the "obvious weaknesses" of the original version, faulting the orchestration as "undoubtedly one of the worst things Sibelius composed" and dismissing the piece as "clumsily scored" and "colorless". For Johnson, there is no question the final version is of superior quality, displaying the craftsmanship and maturity of the Second Symphony. The result of the revisions is, according to Johnson, a "thrilling and brilliantly conceived musical narrative that has won many admirers".

David Hurwitz, calling En saga "one unforgettable ride", admires the composition as "the most extreme example of Sibelius's personal brand of musical primitivism" and applauds its "fantastically sophisticated orchestral language" and "crushing power".

Cecil Gray has been similarly effusive, praising the tone poem's "astonishing power and originality", as well as the "exceptional wealth of melodic invention", with themes of "such outstanding beauty and distinction that any one of them alone would in itself be enough to make the fortune of a work". Gray also distinguishes En saga as the moment at which Finland at last claimed its place on the international stage, a composition that "can be played alongside the musical products of any other country without having any need to fear from the comparison". Indeed, it is for these reasons that Gray labels En saga "the first work of its composer which one can unhesitatingly describe as a masterpiece".

Analysis

Search for a program

Santeri Levas (to the left) with Aino and Jean Sibelius in the 1940s, examining the daily mail in Ainola. Photograph by Levas.

Despite the tone poem's evocative atmosphere, Sibelius never specified a program or literary inspiration for En saga,

Since its premiere in 1893, critics and commentators have sought a program for En saga, despite the fact that Sibelius clearly disavowed any literary source as inspiration. In the 1940s, the composer issued a statement on En saga to his secretary, Santeri Levas (first published in a 1957 biography of Sibelius by Levas), that he wished to be shared after his death:

En saga is, psychologically speaking one of my most profound works. I could almost say that it encompasses my entire youth. It is an expression of a certain state of mind. When I composed it, I had undergone many shattering experiences. In no other work have I revealed myself so completely. Therefore, I find all literary interpretations of En saga totally alien.

In a letter to journalist Gunnar Hauch dated 20 April 1913, Sibelius elaborated his position: "En saga's music depicts basic moods and—why not—different phases of a saga to which everybody can write poetic 'content'".

Finnishness

• Otto Ehrström, writing in Uusi Suometar after the February 1893 premiere: "The spirit of the work is completely Finnish. It is so characteristic of the composer to write Finnish music. Almost each chord, although not heard before, sounds familiar to the Finnish ear".

• Karl Wasenius: "The way of composing here much resembles the one [used] in Kullervo. What places his tone poem into more intimate contact with our audience this time is the genuine Finnish spirit and nature, which permeates his melodies. To us, the fact that Mr. Sibelius, once within all this Finnishness, lets us hear a motif from Bizet's opera, Carmen, seems a curious exception".

• Sibelius also connected En saga to Finnishness; interviewed in 1921 by A. O. Väisänen about En saga having "the spirit of Karelia", Sibelius responded: "Indeed! It has got a down-home feeling. How could one think of anything but Finland while listening to it! I began the work in Vienna and continued it in Monola, Leiska, where we were spending the late summer of 1892, though where the composition took place is unimportant for the character of the work. I have never been as Finnish as I was in Vienna, Italy, and Paris, and I have never been as Pariasian as in Pielisjärvi".

• Karl Flodin: "With this new work, Mr. Sibelius stands on the same exclusively national ground as Kullervo. The major seconds of the rune melodies can again be found here, as well as the fantastic atmosphere and desolate expression—at time as if haunted in torn grief, other times as though drowning into indescribable tonal chaos".

Sibelius' disavowals notwithstanding, En saga has nonetheless "awakened many programmatic associations in the listeners", which is perhaps not surprising given it's title (En saga is Swedish for 'a saga' or 'a fairy tale', both of which conjure up ancient Scandinavian tales and mythology

When contemplating the appeal of Finnish or Northern characterizations of En saga, it is necessary to consider two key points. First, rise of Sibelius' career coincided with (and was perhaps aided by) the palpable yearning for a nationalist composer capable of honoring Finland's unique cultural heritage and of articulating the case for independence from the Russian Empire. At least initially, this was a void into which Sibelius triumphantly stepped: "En saga"'s immediate predecessor, the choral symphony Kullervo (which had premiered ten months earlier on April 28, 1892), after all, is based upon text from the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, and was heralded by critics as "the birth of Finnish music" (e.g., the newspapers Nya Pressen and Uusi Suometar). The desire to see En saga as similarly 'Finnish' and 'nationalistic' was, as Wicklund notes, clearly consistent with "the spirit of the times". Second, in addition to Kullervo, nearly all of the composer's other prominent works from period 1890–1902 are either directly inspired by the mythology of the Kalevala (e.g., Kullervo, the Lemminkäinen Suite, The Origin of Fire), Scandinavian literature or history (e.g., The Wood Nymph, Snöfrid, The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River, King Christian II Suite), or Finland's fledgling quest for nationhood (e.g., Finlandia, the Karelia Music, the Press Celebrations Music). That listeners and critics would view En saga as a part of this programmatic and nationalistic body of work is far from surprising.

Interestingly, English writer and Sibelius biographer Rosa Newmarch understands the program of En saga to be the process of storytelling itself. She writes:

The music suggests the recital of some old tale in which the heroic and pathetic elements are skillfully blended … In imagination we hear a tale of great deeds, of love and heroic death, half sung and half recited by some wandering bard; interrupted from time to time by comments from the listeners, to whom it is as familiar as to the singer himself. At the great outburst towards the close, perhaps the warriors rise to acclaim the memory of the favorite hero; and when the rafters cease to ring with their noise, some dreamy soul sits on in the darkened hall, still lost in thoughts suggested by the Saga.

— Rosa Newmarch, on En saga, 1929

Hunting

The first edition of Kivi's Seven Brothers (1870), the hunting scene of which may have inspired Sibelius

Numerous commentators have described the atmosphere of En saga as evocative of a Nordic hunting expedition. In 1903, for example, journalist Samuli Suomalainen published a collection of short stories, one of which, Aleksis Kiven satu (Aleksis Kivi's Tale), brims with connections to the Sibelius tone poem. In the story, a young composer, 'Johannes Seppälä' (nicknamed 'Janne') [Sibelius], and a conductor friend, 'Robert Kajava' [Kajanus], discuss the revisions the former has made to a score called Satu. Seppälä explains to Kajava that his composition depicts an episode from the Aleksis Kivi novel Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers (1870), in which the characters hunt a lynx.

Although the association between Kivi's Seven Brothers and En saga is probably nothing more than a Suomalainen invention, Glenda Dawn Goss has wondered if the connection might be "more truth than fiction": many of Sibelius's fellow Symposium participants were "in the grip of a Kivi passion", and thus, it reasonable that Sibelius too might have drawn inspiration from Kivi's "idea world". A similar interpretation of En saga comes from the American music critic, Olin Downes; upon hearing the piece in 1935, Downes yearned to abandon civilization: "I avow a carnal desire to discard the soft fat ways of life; to set out in oilskins... to discover at least a desperate polar bear bent on conflict"!

Painting

The Island of Life by Böcklin (1888), a painting that may have provided inspiration for Sibelius's En saga

The first association of En saga with visual media, albeit non-Nordic or Finnish, actually comes from the composer himself. While in the midst of composing En saga, Sibelius wrote to his friend, the Finnish playwright Adolf Paul, connecting the art of the Swiss Symbolist painter, Arnold Böcklin, to his new tone poem:

I have finished a 'Saga' for orchestra. You should be impressed by it. It is Rausch [intoxicating]. I have been thinking about Böcklin's paintings. Why, he paints air that is too clear, swans that are too white, and sea that is too blue.

— Jean Sibelius, in a 10 December 1892 letter to Adolf Paula June 1902 letter to Sibelius

Having studied in Berlin and Vienna in the 1890s, Sibelius would have certainly had the opportunity to view Böcklin's paintings, and as Wicklund notes, the reference to swans suggests either Die Gefilde der Seligen (The Elysian Fields, 1877) or Die Lebensinsel (The Island of Life, 1888). Sibelius' comments to Paul notwithstanding, it is impossible to know the extent to which Böcklin's art actually inspired the Sibelius tone poem, and certainly no particular program for En saga can be drawn from it.

A second association between En saga and visual media comes from Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela, a friend and fellow Symposium colleague of Sibelius's. In Sibelius Sadun säveltäjänä (Sibelius as the Composer of En saga, 1894), Gallen-Kallela depicts the sound and mood of the tone poem as a magical, wintry, "fantasy landscape", replete with glittering snowflakes, succulent fruits, exotic animals, gnarled roots, and off in the distance, a mysterious castle. The aquarelle, Symbolist in style and suggesting the influence of Japonisme (an assessment shared by Sibelius' brother-in-law Eero Järnefelt), is part of a triptych that, according to the artist, represents "the interdependence of the arts". To the right of the landscape is Gallen-Kallela's acclaimed profile of a young Sibelius, cast as a "heavy-lidded romantic figure, tousle-haired and occupied with weighty thoughts"; below is a (empty) space Gallen-Kallela had intended Sibelius to fill with a handwritten quotation from the tone poem's score, a request with which he never complied.

Finnish painter, Akseli Gallen-Kallela (c. 1890s), a friend of Sibelius's whose interpretation of En saga the composer rejected

Sibelius likely declined Gallen-Kallela's proposed "union between the arts" because he found his friend's Symbolist landscape incongruous with his own composition. Tomi Mäkelä, however, has challenged conventional wisdom, arguing that Sibelius may have refused to provide a quotation from the score not because he rejected Gallen-Kallela's interpretation, but rather because he was both weary of reducing to a single image the entirety of his tone poem and, second, recognized that the inherent power of visual media would have "given priority to the painter" and "immortalised Gallen-Kallela's idea". At a minimum, the triptych illustrates the impact Sibelius's music had upon Gallen-Kallela during the 1890s, as well as the extent to which the painter saw himself as a participant in, rather than a mere consumer of, Finland's budding music scene.

Gallen-Kallela's interpretation of En saga—through the triptych's public tours of Europe—"very likely guided or colored" the opinions of subsequent commentators, who were themselves in search of a program the tone poem. For example, as early as May 1894, Sibelius as the Composer of En saga made its public debut at a Helsinki exhibition (the portrait of Sibelius was rated as "one of the very best items in the exhibition", while the landscape met with mixed reviews). Although Gallen-Kallela gifted the painting to Sibelius, further exhibitions followed in Gothenburg and Berlin followed in 1895.

Arrangement for septet

The creative origins of En saga remain somewhat uncertain, although Sibelius's statements to Ekman and Furuhjelm indicate the piece may have evolved from sketches for a septet or octet the composer had begun in 1890–91. To date, however, researchers have been unable to recover the pre-En saga chamber piece, either as a completed manuscript or unfinished sketches (again, if such a composition ever existed). Gregory Barrett, professor of clarinet at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, has nonetheless sought to reclaim this (purported) "lost chamber masterpiece", arranging in 2003 the original 1892 orchestral tone poem for flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, cello, and string bass.

Contemporary accounts that describe the Barrett septet as a "reconstruction" are inaccurate; because Sibelius's 1890–91 sketches do not survive, there is no way to know how similar Sibelius's own chamber piece was to the first orchestral version of En saga and, by extension, to Barrett's chamber arrangement. It is for this reason that the Barrett septet is not included on the 13-volume BIS Complete Sibelius Edition, a 2007–11 project billed as having recorded every note Sibelius ever penned.

On 14 June 2003, six musicians from the Lahti Symphony Orchestra joined Barrett (on clarinet) to premiere the septet at the Brahmssaal (Brahms Hall) of the Musikverein in Vienna, the city where Sibelius claimed to have composed his own (lost) pre-En saga septet/octet; the Austrian-Finnish Friendship Society sponsored the performance, while the Finnish Embassy hosted a reception after the concert. The Barrett septet was first recorded in May 2008 at the Sigyn Hall in Turku, Finland by the Turku Ensemble and released on 12 July 2011 by Pilfink Records (PILFINK JJVCD-69). Many reviews note the conspicuous absence of the tone poem's brass and percussion, although one of the performers, flautist Ilari Lehtinen, has argued the septet compensates by making "the intimate aspects of the work sound more personal and more heart-rending". Writing for Fanfare, Steven Ritter has praised the septet as "remarkable", noting that although "acute listeners will miss the brass and all the pomp and beauty of orchestral majesty that we associate with Sibelius", Barrett's arrangement "has much to offer and loses little atmosphere". Carl Bauman, writing for the American Record Guide, on the other hand, has argued the musical material "doesn’t fare nearly as well here as it does in its orchestration".

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of En saga:

No.	Conductor	Orchestra	Rec.	Time	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
?	Yoel Levi	Atlanta Symphony Orchestra		17:47		Telarc
?	Vladimir Ashkenazy	Philharmonia Orchestra	1981		Kingsway Hall	Decca
?	William Boughton	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra		19:17		Nimbus Records
?	Neemi Järvi	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	1985	18:35	Gothenburg Concert Hall	BIS
?	Adrian Leaper	Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra	1989	17:27	Reduta Bratislava	Naxos
?	Leif Segerstam	Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra	1991	19:37	Danish Radio Concert Hall	Chandos
?	Esa-Pekka Salonen	Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	17:26	Royce Hall	Sony
?	Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen	Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra	1995	18:09	Tampere Hall	Ondine
?	Mikko Franck	Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra	1999	19:46	Berwald Hall	Ondine
?	Petri Sakari	Iceland Symphony Orchestra	2000	18:54	[Unknown], Reykjavik	Naxos
?	Osmo Vänskä	Lahti Symphony Orchestra	2000	18:03	Sibelius Hall	BIS
?	Leif Segerstam	BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra	2006	19:54	Glasgow City HallsL	BBC Music Magazine
?	Sir Mark Elder	The Hallé	2014	17:40	Bridgewater Hall	Hallé
?	Sakari Oramo	BBC Symphony Orchestra	2015	19:23	Royal Albert HallL	BBC Music Magazine
?	Hannu Lintu	Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra	2016	18:40	Helsinki Music Centre	Ondine
?	Thomas Søndergård	BBC National Orchestra of Wales	2018	18:06	BBC Hoddinott Hall	Linn Records
?	Santtu-Matias Rouvali	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	2018	19:01	Gothenburg Concert Hall	Alpha Classics

En saga is one of Sibelius's more commonly recorded tone poems, although it trails more famous compositions such as The Swan of Tuonela and Finlandia. The first recording was made in 1938 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. To date, the only recording of the original 1892 version (22:23) is by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under the BIS label (BIS-CD-800); it was recorded in May 1995 and appears on the album with the original 1915 version of the Fifth Symphony. The album premiered to considerable acclaim. Gramophone's James McCarthy characterized the record as perspective-changing, noting that the original versions of the pieces provided "fascinating material for comparison" and allowed "a glimpse of two familiar masterpieces in the making". Kurt Moses, writing in the American Record Guide, similarly commended the record for providing "rare insight into a composer's creative process", but cautioned that "while Sibelius enthusiasts will love it [,] ... this is not a 'must buy' for everyone ... [and] is not a substitute for ... the final versions of these works".

Conductor	Orchestra	Year	Duration	Available on
Vladimir Ashkenazy	Philharmonia Orchestra	1981	19:27	Decca (000121902)
William Boughton	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	1990	19:17	Nimbus (7716)
Sergiu Comissiona	Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	20:27	Ondine (ODE767)
Andrew Davis	Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra	1996	17:31	Apex (7406202)
Mikko Franck	Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra	1999	19:46	Ondine (ODE953)
Wilhelm Furtwängler	Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra	1943	20:31	Deutsche Grammophon (471294)
Wilhelm Furtwängler	Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra	1950	20:29	Music and Arts (CD-799)
Yoel Levi	Atlanta Symphony Orchestra	1992	17:47	[(80320)]
Adrian Leaper	Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra	1989	17:27	Naxos (8.550200)
Herbert von Karajan	Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra	1976	18:24	Warner Classics (633619)
Lorin Maazel	Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra	1992	17:08	Sony (87882)
Alexander Gibson	Royal Scottish National Orchestra	1977	18:08	Chandos (CHAN8395)
Alexander Gibson	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra		17:00	Collins Classics (CC-1093)
Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen	Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra	1995	18:09	Ondine (ODE871)
Petri Sakari	Iceland Symphony Orchestra	2000	18:54	Naxos (8.555299)
Esa-Pekka Salonen	Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	17:26	Sony (48067)
Malcom Sargent	Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra	1961	18:29	Warner Classics (2564-634121)
Ole Schmidt	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	1996	17:51	Regis (1216)
Horst Stein	Suisse Romande Orchestra	1971	16:12	Decca ‎(417 697-2)
Arturo Toscanini	NBC Symphony Orchestra	1952	18:03	Music & Arts Programs of America (4755)
Osmo Vänskä	Lahti Symphony Orchestra	2000	18:03	BIS (BIS-CD-1225)
Vassily Sinaisky	Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra	1991	17:49	Brilliant Classics (BC9212)
Kurt Sanderling	Berlin Symphony Orchestra	1970	19:54	Brilliant Classics (BC9267)
Eugene Ormandy	Philadelphia Orchestra	1975		RCA Red Seal (38123)
Eugene Ormandy	Philadelphia Orchestra	1963	16:55	Sony Essential Classics (48271)
Eugene Ormandy	Philadelphia Orchestra	1955	15:47	Pristine (PASC 205)
Neeme Järvi	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	1992	17:52	Deutsche Grammophon (000459702)
Neeme Järvi	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	1985	18:35	BIS (BIS-CD-295)
Colin Davis	London Symphony Orchestra	1994	18:48	RCA Red Seal (82876557062)
Colin Davis	Dresden Staatskapelle	2003	19:22	Profil (PH05049)
Colin Davis	Boston Symphony Orchestra	1980	17:49	Philips Eloquence (47628172)
Leif Segerstam	Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra	1991	19:37	Chandos (CHAN8965)
Paavo Berglund	Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	1974	19:03	Warner Classics (0094639768950)
Antal Doráti	London Symphony Orchestra	1969	18:48	EMI Classics (724358578522)
Vladimir Fedoseyev	Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra	1998	19:42	Relief (CR991052)
Adrian Boult	London Philharmonic Orchestra	1956	17:36	Omega Classics (OCD1027)
Anthony Collins	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	1957		Beulah (5PD8)
Thomas Beecham	London Philharmonic Orchestra	1938	17:32	Naxos Historical (8.110867)
Jukka-Pekka Saraste	Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra	1987	18:05	RCA Red Seal (74321886852)
Eduard van Beinum	Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra	1952	19:14	Decca Eloquence (4229487)

Notes, references, and sources

Sources

• Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press.

• Couling, Della (2005). Ferruccio Busoni: A Musical Ishmael. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

• Gray, Cecil (1931). Sibelius. London: Oxford University Press.

• Grimley, Daniel (2004). "The Tone Poems: Genre, Landscape and Structural Perspective". In Grimley, Daniel (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius. Cambridge Companions to Music. London: Cambridge University Press.

• Hurwitz, David (2007). Sibelius: The Orchestral Works, an Owner's Manual. Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press.

• Johnson, Harold (1959). Jean Sibelius. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

• Layton, Robert (1965). Sibelius: The Masters Musicians Series. New York: Schirmer Books.

• Rickards, Guy (1997). Jean Sibelius. London: Phaidon.

• Ringbom, Nils-Eric (1954). Jean Sibelius: A Master and His Work. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

• Tawaststjerna, Erik (1976). Sibelius: Volume 1, 1865–1905. (Robert Layton, English translation). London: Faber and Faber.

• Tawaststjerna, Erik (1986). Sibelius: Volume 2, 1904–1914. (Robert Layton, English translation). London: Faber and Faber.

• Tawaststjerna, Erik (1997). Sibelius: Volume 3, 1914–1957. (Robert Layton, English translation). London: Faber and Faber.

• Wicklund, Tuija (2014). Jean Sibelius's En saga and Its Two Versions: Genesis, Reception, Edition, and Form. Studia Musica (Thesis). Vol. 57. University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy.