AS A YOUNG BOY
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AS A YOUNG BOY |
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Pay no attention to what the critics say...remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic!
Jean Sibelius, quoted in "Sibelius: A Close-Up" Bengt de Torne 1937
In 1879 he broke his right arm just below the shoulder, which was to later handicap him as a violinist. In a letter to Evelina dated 11 October, he announced he was ‘almost healed’. Some years later hunting ducks he almost drowned in a lake. The 16 April 1881, he wrote to Pehr: ‘Dear Uncle, I am writing for the first time to my uncle in Latin. I am writing briefly hoping that that uncle is well. I finish. I send you my greetings! Janne’ Three days after was a new letter: ‘I really want to learn the violin, if you allow me, I will commence my lessons next autumn with the musical director Levander in Tavastehus; please be kind enough, the next time you are here, to bring the violin my aunt spoke of. I have a violin, but it is borrowed from one of my classmates, Karl Strenroth, poor but very talented for music, therefore I would not like to deprive him of it. They asked me to play the cello in a group made up of a few classmates, but as I do not own a cello, it is out of the question. I would also like to learn how to play the cello. We are always pleased to see you here.’ This letter shows that it was only at the end of his sixteenth year that Sibelius seriously started to study music and to be précis the violin. It was too late to hope to undertake the career of a virtuoso, but this did not prevent him from considering that he was essentially a violinist during almost the whole of the 1880s. Gustaf Levander (1824-1895), a good musician, was the leader of the Hämeenlinna military band, and was part of the town’s string quartet. He also taught the cello at Kitti, and it is more than probable that the Vattendroppar dates from this period.
Another letter to Pehr, written between the 19 June and 21 September 1881, shows Sibelius discovering the classics: ‘Thank you, my good and very dear uncle, for the violin that you have sent to me on loan. […] It is really a good violin. I attended a concert of the violinist [Gerhard] Brassin and the pianist [Carl] Pfeiffer. I never heard anything like that before. The violinist played with great feeling and expression, but also brilliantly, and at places almost too fast. Of all the pieces, it is the sonata in A major of Beethoven that I liked the most. The piano was almost drowned by the violin, but the pianist had played a piece (of Mendelssohn) so well that it was almost unbelievable.’ The 21 September he proudly announced to Pehr: ‘Levander complemented me immensely for my violin, he found my sonorities strong and with feeling. I have started French at school, as you and my aunt advised me to.’
The letter to Pehr of the following 18 December mentioned for the first time the family trio formed by Janne with his sister Linda (piano) and his brother Christian (cello). Other letters inform us that with the orchestra of the school, in which he was second violin, Sibelius studied Norma of Bellini (11 January 1882), and that some months later, after having bought for three marks the scores of the doctor and violinist Theodor Albert Tigerstedt, he played ‘Hadyn’s sonatas for violin and piano with deep and serious sonorities’ (20 June and 1 August 1882). In August he received a present from Aunt Evelina, a manual of musical harmony, ‘a book I’ve wanted for a long time but incredibly expensive’. Two months after, the 12 October 1882, he announced to Pehr ‘good news. Here in Tasvastehus they have formed a string quartet in which I will play second violin. Anna Tigerstedt [1860-1946), daughter of Theodor Albert Tigerstedt] was first violin, the director Levander played viola and [the pharmacist Hugo Wilhelm] Elfsberg the cello. Last Sunday I was at the Tigerstedt’s and Levander taught us our scores, Anna and me. The quartets that we played were Haydn’s. […] Levander told me that when the strings were bad [of a violin] they become yellow, due to the presence in the strings of a certain type of worm that corrodes them little by little.’ Janne often asked his uncle to send him violin strings. ‘The other day, we were all invited to the Elfsberg’s to play music, but it did not work out, because Anna Tigerstedt, the first violinist in the quintet was sick. Aunt [Evelina] and I played all the works of Haydn, Schubert or Mendelssohn’ (22 December). ‘As my aunt certainly told you, I have started to study musical harmony. […] Recently I have mostly played the piano, to learn to decipher music, as you advised to me at Christmas. I have not touched my violin for several weeks, but now we are on holidays I will have enough time to start again’ (17 March 1883).
These interesting letters show the timidity of the young Sibelius, his repugnance to open himself out, as well as his beginnings as a composer: ‘My classmates asked me to play something solo. I chose a piece by [Miska] Hauser, a Liebeslied (a song of love). As you can imagine I had no wish to play before 350 people. Since last Thursday I worried how it would turn out. Finally Saturday arrived. I was frightened I would start trembling and have to stop in the middle of the piece. Nine o’clock came quickly, it was my turn. I did not dare look at the auditorium, and as I went onto the stage the notes started to dance before my eyes, and I had to play the whole piece by memory. I was a little ashamed because of my modest capacities, to have dared to play, but said to myself “There is no harm in trying”. Afterwards I was completely relaxed. So ended my first and perhaps last recital’ (16 April 1883).
‘I have made a small attempt at composing. A trio for two violins and piano is already finished; it is in G major and eight pages. I am now writing the instrumentation of another trio. These works are clearly not very good, but it is amusing to have something to do when it rains. (25 August 1883). The is also talk in these letters of fishing trips with Uncle Otto, trios of Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn played with the Elfsberg couple (he on the cello and she on the piano), and the acquisition of the Compositionslehre (‘Composition Method’, 1884) by Johan Christian Lobe (1797-1881), ‘in German and therefore twice as useful. I have already had the time to read forty pages and to compose a quartet for two violins, cello and piano; a trio for violin, cello and piano has not yet been put into harmony (24 February 1884). The letter of the 30 November 1884 announced a change: ‘I am thinking of a new trio for piano, violin and cello in A minor and in three movements. […] Elfsberg sold his pharmacy and will move to Helsingfors the last day of December. From time to time I have been to their place to play. Can you tell my aunt that Levander has recommended the music of a Corelli album to Kitti […] Today, a great concert here. The Helsingfors string quartet, I will try to go. That will make me happy. The programme is very interesting, the talent of the musicians great and well known. First violin [Anton] Sitt. Recently I often wonder how to make trios with the Sibelius family as the Elfsberg are going; the only way is that I start to compose, but it is tiring.’
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