Nightride and Sunrise

Nightride and Sunrise is a symphonic poem composed by Jean Sibelius in 1908. Sibelius gave different accounts of the inspiration for this music. One, told to Karl Ekman, was his first visit to the Colosseum in Rome in 1901. Another account, given in his later years to his secretary Santeri Levas, was a sledge ride from Helsinki to Kervo "at some time around the turn of the century", during which he saw a striking sunrise.Erik W. Tawaststjerna (trans. Robert Layton), Sibelius, Volume II: 1904-1914. Faber and Faber (London, 1986), pp. 100-101.

Sibelius scored it for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns (doubled if possible in the Sunrise), 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, tambourine, triangle and strings.

Sibelius completed the score by November 1908 and sent the manuscript to the conductor Alexander Siloti, who led the first performance in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1909. The reviews of the first performance were, except for that from Novy Russ, unfavorable, but one description of Siloti's conducting of that first performance was "slack and monotonous". Another comment from Novoye Vremya was quoted as asking "Who is actually riding, and why?" In addition, Siloti had made cuts to the score.Erik W. Tawaststjerna (trans. Robert Layton), Sibelius, Volume II: 1904-1914. Faber and Faber (London, 1986), pp. 96-97,

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