I agree, George.
In the 2nd symphony it feels to me like Sibelius has found something absolutely fundamental, as if he has the genetic code for the whole of nature in his pen, and he allows it to run following its own promptings. It sounds so fresh and doesn't sound personal in the way that say Tchaikovsky or Mahler do, in whose music to my ears you can hear the composer appeal to you personally (so to speak). With Sibelius, he seems to pop in from time to time as a recognisable emotional identity (definitely I hear him for example in the chorale-like brass idea in the second movt, and the beautiful folky tune that precedes the big final tune - at least that is how it felt last night) but for the rest of the time, it is like hearing the collisions of energies in the atmosphere playing and interacting.
I wonder if I can feel something approximating the weather in his music not because he portrays it consciously, but because its principles are interwoven into his self-expression, the effect of which is of energies balancing themselves out and running their own course, rather than being inspected and directed.
Possibly more than any other composer I can hear cells of energy in the music which either come to fruition or not, always full of potential though. To my ears it is music that is bursting with latent kinetic energy that brings a great sense of renewal, of joy and of hope, just like the weather does (er, sometimes
). Often these cells do not evolve, they only suggest the constant bubbling of energy beneath the surface, always seeking to find equilibrium between themselves. It doesn't feel such an emotional struggle, more an elemental one, as if somebody is finding their identity by observing nature and bearing witness to it, rather than in inspecting their own inner world - the setting
is the drama, rather than a place where the drama is set.
Anyway, this is what struck me listening last night, and blah, blah, etc, but these painfully amateurish attempts at description aside, I found that even with all its imperfections this performance was one of the most moving I've heard all year, and certainly one of the most exciting of this symphony I've ever heard.
