ISBN 979-0-004-18266-6. 9 x 12 in inches.
When Breitkopf and Hartel published the Romance in C in 1909, it did so on a rather grand scale, which included the publication of Otto Taubmann's arrangement for violin and piano. The otherwise rather critical Sibelius enthusiastically gave it a thumbs-up to the publisher, calling it excellent! Nevertheless, this version soon fell into oblivion, while the original found its way into the repertoire as a worthy successor to the serenades of Dvorak and Tchaikovsky. Taubmann solved his demanding assignment with amazing skill. The Romance is not a concerto movement in disguise, but features the dark, dense string writing typical of Sibelius. Taubmann literally draws the solo part from out of the string texture. With a masterly sense of dramaturgy, he doubles the piano and violin only in a few measures. Taubmann also sometimes deliberately leads the solo part with its open G string below the piano accompaniment, which is basically unusually low and notated over wide stretches only in the bass clef. This new publication now makes it possible to rediscover this effective arrangement of medium technical difficulty. Fast alle Orchesterbearbeitungen sind Jahre nach den Originalkompositionen fur Singstimme und Klavier entstanden.
Trotz der Tatsache dass sie rasch hingeworfen sind zeigt sich in allen Liedern Sibelius' Meisterschaft als Orchesterliederkomponist. Manchmal vermag er eine dustere dramatische Atmosphare (in ,,Pa verandan vid havet) zu erzeugen manchmal gelingen ihm leuchtend farbige Impressionen (in ,,Soluppgang) oder zart transparente Gewebe (in ,,Varen flyktar hastigt) - immer jedoch sind die Lieder ganz aus deren poetischer Idee heraus gestaltet und differenziert nachgezeichnet. In den meisten Fallen beschrankte sich Sibelius auf ein relativ kleines Orchester. In ,,Varen flyktar hastigt sind neben den Streichern nur zwei Floten und vier Horner besetzt. Nearly all of the orchestral arrangements were made years after the original compositions for voice and piano.
Yet even though the arrangements were made in a very short period of time Sibelius handled the combination of solo voice and orchestra in all songs with equal mastery sometimes creating dark and dramatic atmospheres (in Pa verandan vid havet) sometimes radiant colorful impressions (in Soluppgang) or light-colored transparent textures (in Varen flyktar hastigt) and always basing his ideas on the poetic idea of the song while discovering refined ways of supporting it.
