The Dryad (in Finnish: ), Op. 45/1, is a tone poem for orchestra written in 1910 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He completed it between skiing trips. He conducted the first performance in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, on 8 October 1910, together with the premiere of In memoriam. He arranged it for piano in 1910 (). The piece has been regarded as one of the composer's "shortest and most original orchestral works", as an "impressionist miniature", proceeding from fragments to a "dance-like theme".
Instrumentation The Dryad is scored for the following instruments, organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):
1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B), 1 bass clarinet (in B), and 2 bassoons 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in B), 3 trombones, and tuba Bass drum, snare drum, castanets, and tambourine Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, and double basses
Structure
Discography The Finnish conductor Nils-Eric Fougstedt and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of The Dryad in 1959 for the (in Finnish: ). The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings: ConductorEnsembleTimeRecording venueLabel1Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra1959??2Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra19756:01Liverpool Philharmonic HallEMI Classics3Royal Scottish National Orchestra19775:44Glasgow City HallsChandos4Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra19855:41Gothenburg Concert HallBIS5Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra19915:43Mosfilm StudiosBrilliant Classics620026:02Finlandia7Lahti Symphony Orchestra20005:07Sibelius HallBIS8New Zealand Symphony Orchestra20075:46Michael Fowler CentreNaxos
In addition, the Finnish pianist Erik T. Tawaststjerna made the world premiere studio recording of Sibelius's piano transcription of The Dryad in 1987 for BIS. The table below includes this and other commercially available recordings:
PianistTimeRecording venueLabel119875:45Danderyd Grammar SchoolBIS220075:10BIS
Notes, references, and sources
External links