The HPO’s last Sibelius premiere, The Lonely Ski Trail, arr. for narrator, string orchestra and harp (cond. Martti Similä)

The Lonely Ski Trail, arr. for narrator, string orchestra and harp (cond. Martti Similä)
19 December 1948

The arrangement for narrator, harp and string orchestra of the poetic melodrama The Lonely Ski Trail for narrator and piano of 1925 by Bertel Gripenberg was the last of the works by Sibelius premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The narrator was Ella Eronen.

Yrjö Suomalainen, writing in Uusi Suomi, undoubtedly crystallised the opinion of many a listener in writing that “even the slightest trace left by the pen of Sibelius the composer will of course arouse interest whatever the context… The instrumentation, compressed in a sparse and simple guise, has both easily-observed sense and a live, creative tick that intensifies the poem.” In the wake of the abortive eighth symphony and the dwindling of his creative energy, it was thus still possible to discern “a live, creative tick”.

Text: Timo Virtanen
Picture: HPO's archive