Ives, Salonen, and Sibelius Tonight on Classical Showcase

Friday evening at 7 pm, Classical Showcase continues with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of music by Charles Ives, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jean Sibelius.  The former music director of the orchestra will conduct a performance of his own violin concerto with soloist Leila Josefowicz, for whom the work was written. The mysterious short work from 1908 titled The Unanswered Question by American composer Charles Ives will open the concert.  Not only do we not know the "answer," we're not even sure exactly what the question is, except that it has to do with the riddle of existence.  One commentator speculated that the title may have come from a line in the 1847 poem "The Sphinx" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is also a composer, and he wrote his violin concerto for Leila Josefowicz just as his tenure as music director of the L. A. Phil was coming to an end in 2009.  One of his aims was to spend more time composing, and he certainly got off to a rewarding start with this half hour piece that won the 2012 Grawemeyer Award.  With its final movement titled "Adieu," it was a fitting farewell to the orchestra he directed for 17 years. Jean Sibelius wrote his Symphony No. 5 in E flat in 1915 and extensively revised it into its three-movement form four years later.  It's one of his most popular works, and suits the temperament of our Finnish conductor very well.  Sibelius is a national hero in Finland and this symphony was written at the request of the Finnish government for celebrations surrounding the composer's 50th birthday. All the Sibelius trademarks are there: the mysterious, moody quality that evokes the far-northern landscapes of Finland, a world of nature often feeling uninhabited by human presence, and a sense of naturally developing organic form in the music itself as it progresses toward its inexorable conclusion. The final movement contains the famous "swan-call" motif that was inspired by the composer witnessing a group of 16 swans taking off and flying overhead.  Musicologist Donald Tovey likened it to the Norse god Thor swinging his hammer, but I'll go with the swans.  The symphony concludes with the six staggered chords that keep you wondering until the very end, is there going to be one more? Classical Showcase airs Friday at 7 pm on Classical 101. http://youtu.be/5s_qlafKO5E