The early 1900s, a heady time for theatre in Finland, was also the time of Sibelius’s most intense activity in writing for the stage. Very quickly after Kuolema (1902) and Pelleas and Melisande (1905), he produced music for Hjalmar Procope’s play Belshazzar’s Feast. In contrast to Maeterlinck’s masterpiece, Procope’s play really only survives now through Sibelius’s music—and critics at the time were not slow to point out the superiority of the music to the drama.

Belshazzar’s Feast was premiered at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in November 1906. Sibelius provided a score of ten numbers, and although the concert suite (which Sibelius premiered himself in 1907) has only four movements, it incorporates all the significant material from the full score.

Though infrequently performed, the four pieces that make up the suite from Sibelius' incidental score for the play are typical of the composer's music in that genre. Though perhaps not ideally suited to concert performance, the music, which contains moments of great poignancy, serves its original purpose extremely well. Steering clear of any traditional means of musical development, Sibelius instead relies on extended formal repetition and the use of ostinato to portray the local color of the drama.

(00:14) The opening "Oriental March" depicts a Babylonian procession; here Sibelius' natural affinity for fusing traditional harmonies with various modal flavors comes to the fore.

(02:56) "Solitude" is a poetic, introspective vision which relies heavily upon ostinato and hushed effects in the strings section.

(06:20) The dissonant, sobbing gestures of "Night Music" remain philosophically in the same vein as "Solitude."

(10:41) The final piece, "Khadra's Dance," is lighter in mood, though features an oboe melody of some pathos.

(Hyperion, AllMusic)

Please take note that the audio AND the sheet music ARE NOT mine. Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry.

Original audio:    • Jean Sibelius - El Festín de Baltasar...  
(Performance by: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pietari Inkinen)
Original sheet music: http://imslp.org/wiki/Belshazzar's_Fe...)