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14 JEAN SIBELIUS
Your programme contains both pieces with orchestra and others with
piano. What were your criteria in making your choice, and why did you
decide to exclude the Concerto?
The disc contains absolutely all the works for violin and orchestra, with the
exception of the Concerto op.47. I thought it was more interesting to turn the
spotlight on the rest of his output for violin. The Concerto, which of course I’m
extremely fond of, is already very well represented on disc; I’ve often played it in
concert, and every time I do so, aside from the endlessly renewed pleasure I get
from it, I’m struck by the figurative dimension of the orchestration, independent
of the soloist. It isn’t a concerto like the others: the orchestra does more than just
punctuate the interventions of the soloist – it also asserts a personality in its own
right. And then it also has something of an emotional dimension for me, as it’s the
work I was playing at the very moment when my wife was giving birth to our first
child!
I’ll certainly be recording it at some stage in the future, but I’ll give myself a bit of
time to determine when, where, how and with whom.
For the pieces with piano, I wanted to get away from the rather ‘sombre’
atmosphere of the Serenades and the Two Pieces op.77, and so I chose pieces that
are lighter, more spontaneous in their inspiration, close to the spirit of salonmusic,
and which are also, in a sense, miniature stylistic exercises.