Karelia Suite

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The Karelia Suite is a collection of pieces composed by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, published as his Op. 11.

The pieces are drawn from several independent works he wrote in 1893 for a patriotic historical pageant to be presented by students of the University of Helsinki in Viipuri, Karelia, in the south-eastern corner of Finland. Sibelius subsequently compiled a "Concert Suite" of three pieces from the pageant's incidental music (an overture was published separately).

The rough-hewn character of the music was deliberate: the aesthetic intention was not to dazzle with technique but to capture the quality of "naive," folk-based authenticity.

The Suite is in three movements:

• Intermezzo, a jaunty Allegro march-like theme, which begins low down in the orchestra, depicting a procession, the orchestra brilliantly portraying the atmosphere of marching contingents in a waving sea of flags. The piece was used in the UK as a title theme for the long-running ITV current affairs programme "This Week".
• a melancholic Ballade, "sung" by a bard (on cor anglais), reflecting the mood of a fifteenth-century Swedish king, Karl Knutsson, reminiscing in his castle whilst being entertained by a minstrel.
• a final Alla Marcia, an exhilarating march, originally incidental to a tableau depicting a castle siege.

While the suite is one of Sibelius's earlier works, it remains one of his most popular.

The Karelia province was held dear by Sibelius. In earlier years he had found stimulus in its folk music, and later he was to spend his honeymoon there.