The seasons have long been an inspiration to composers, especially the arrival of spring which heralds brighter, warmer days. Perhaps that is why Scandinavian composers, emerging from such long, dark winters, have embraced spring so rapturously. Frederick Delius composed On hearing the first cuckoo in spring in 1911, the clarinet taking on the star avian role. Edvard Grieg’s To Spring is from his third book of Lyric Pieces, refreshing in its clarity, like ice melting as the sun returns. Sibelius composed this tone poem in 1894. It has a bittersweet quality, but an optimistic finale, full of hope. Carl Nielsen’s “lyric humoresque” is a joyous cantata, his final major choral work. The composer was raised on the island of Funen and this paean to spring is exhilarating and uplifting in the extreme.
The seasons have long been an inspiration to composers, especially the arrival of spring which heralds brighter, warmer days.
