Yesterday’s modern premiere of a Sibelius overture, said to have been rediscovered in the manuscript of the composer’s one-act opera, “The Maiden in the Tower,” sent me back to a complete recording of the stage work.

At 35 minutes, Sibelius’ grandiose music is too much for the slight libretto – a simple story about a damsel in distress, a lecherous bailiff who abuses his authority, the maiden’s devoted lover, ready to defend her to the death, and a deus ex machina in the form of the castle’s justice-loving chatelaine. As a secular cantata, I can see how this might be regarded as something of an action-packed potboiler, a pre-Raphaelite painting in sound; but as “opera,” there’s no way. The whole thing just buckles. How I wish the composer had followed through on his earlier design of a grand opera after the Kalevela.

What I didn’t understand until today’s reencounter with a work I have not listened to in years is that the resurrected overture – not to be confused with the opera’s brief orchestral prelude – is basically a compilation of material that already exists within the larger piece. It doesn’t, however, explain away the overture’s potpourri character, since the prelude and first scene are presented, as near as I can tell, as is, within the “new” work. It rather puts me in the mind of the overture to Vaughan Williams’ “The Poisoned Kiss,” in form rather than character, since both are basically constructed on tunes from the opera.

It was the conductor of yesterday’s modern premiere, Tuomas Hannikainen, who, as a doctoral candidate, discovered not a separate score, but rather handwritten clues left by the composer on the opera itself suggesting a new orchestral work, or “overture,” hidden within the piece. So basically, that’s the story behind this Sibelius rediscovery. The composer is said to have conducted a couple of performances of the work back in 1900. The 12-minute overture should not be confused with the three-minute prelude to the opera.

Sibelius suppressed “The Maiden in the Tower” after a few early performances in 1896, with the intention of revising the entire work, which he never got around to addressing. Indications for the new overture may have been the composer’s attempt to salvage some of the best bits from the opera. After all, material from an earlier, incomplete opera, “The Building of the Boat,” was recycled in his “Four Legends from the Kalevala” – with “The Swan of Tuonela” forming the opera’s original prelude – and his symphonic poem “The Wood Dove.”

Yesterday’s performance of the overture reconstructed from “The Maiden in the Tower” is now posted on the YouTube channel of the Avanti Chamber Orchestra. If I understand correctly, a complete concert will be made available there on May 30, which will include not only this “premiere,” but also Sibelius’ melodrama “The Countess’ Portrait” and a suite from his incidental music to “Belshazzar’s Feast.” Also featured will be André Caplet’s “Conte fantastique” for harp and string orchestra, after Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.”

For more information, visit the Avanti website.

Avanti! conducted by Tuomas Hannikainen resurrects Sibelius work dormant for 120 years

Whatever this overture is, I am glad to have heard it!

A complete recording of “The Maiden in the Tower”

Sibelius, enjoying a smoke, circa 1900