Valse sad

Valse triste , op. 44 is a concert waltz composed in 1904 by Jean Sibelius and one of the most famous of his works.

Two years after the world premiere of Arvid Järnefelt's drama Kuolema (“Death”), for which Sibelius wrote the stage music, he reworked three pieces from it. He named one of them Valse triste ("sad waltz") and gave his rights to a publisher for very little money, who made a fortune from it. The "Scene with Cranes" emerged from the other two numbers, in which two clarinets imitate the cry of the birds.

The playing time of Valse triste is about five minutes.

literature

• Barry Millington in the booklet to the complete recording of the symphonies with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle 1984–88, 1991