SKU: FG.55011-610-8

ISBN 9790550116108.

Two Mythical Scenes for orchestra was completed in 1956, when Sallinen was Aarre Merikanto's composition student for his second term. The work received its premiere performance only after a good deal of pressure from Prof. Merikanto's side, and was finally premiered in a concert by the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jussi Jalas. The work received opus number 1, as it was the first publicly performed work by Sallinen.
The composer has told that he was inspired by a 1947 book published by the Finnish Literary Society (SKS) Myytillisia kuvia (Mythical Scenes/Images). The second movement of the work, Kalmanvaen joulukirkko (The Christmas Service of the Dead) is based on the stories in which the dead rise from their graves early in the Christmas Day morning to attend their own special ceremony led by a dead priest. The opening movement Kulkue (Procession) depicts the dead in a procession towards the church.
In 2020 Sallinen revised the score slightly. In his own words with very small changes helping the sixty years younger and less experienced self. The revisions mostly concerned nuances and dynamics, bowings and some bridges. The original structure, rhythmic and harmonic world is still the same as they were when young Sallinen composed the work in 1956.

SKU: HL.14014802

ISBN 9780711992764. 9.75x13.75x0.285 inches.

Composer's Notes: This piece, written during the winter months of 2000-2001, consists of one movement, Allegro con fuoco, in which an old score is revisited, raided and ravished by its composer. The earlier music had been written in the mid-fifties for a stage work Maratona di Danza and for its maker, the director Luchino Visconti. Elements from the older piece reappear on and off like shadows under the surface of new ones, like more or less vague memories, images of young people suffering pain and despair in their struggle for survival in a barbaric, pitiless modern world. My new composition is a kind of concerto for very large symphony orchestra, an etude on constant and often rapid musical changes of mood and colours, built on a variety of rhythmic figures, incessantly and brutally pushing the music ahead. Sometimes, it is as though voices are weeping, sometimes crying out loud with pain, with anxiety, under the cold hearted pressure of an overwhelming violence. Hans Werner Henze Commissioned on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of das neue werk, Hamburg. Premiered on 29th June 2001. Duration 15 minutes.

SKU: BR.SON-620

The American tone poems

ISBN 9790004803226. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Jean Sibelius wrote his last two tone poems Aallottaret op. 73 and Tapiola op. 112 as commissions for the United States. Aallottaret is the original Finnish title of op. 73, as is found on the autograph. Discreetly concealed behind this title, however, is the title The Oceanides, which also stems from Sibelius, and which Breitkopf & Hartel gladly placed in first position for the first edition of 1915, thus facilitating the diffusion of the work. The previously unpublished early version of Aallottaret is also presented in the volume of the Complete Edition; it had been hastily rejected shortly before the world premiere. Compared with this genesis, the origin of Tapiola , Sibelius last great symphonic poem, is relatively unspectacular: though he was under pressure to write and publish the work, Sibelius produced no different versions. There was only one printed edition from Breitkopf and no further revisions. Thanks are given to Professor Nors S. Josephson for his valuable work on this volume, the editing of which he began.