Two Rondinos

Two Rondinos
Piano solos by Jean Sibelius
The composer (1911)
Opus	68
Composed	1912 (1912)
Publisher	Universal Edition (1912)[1]
Duration	5.75 mins[2]

The Two Rondinos (in German: Zwei Rondinos), Op. 68, is a collection of compositions for piano written in November 1912 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

History

An 1892 sketch of Sibelius at the piano by his future brother-in-law Eero Järnefelt

Sibelius (1927) plays the Steinway grand piano at his home, Ainola.

Structure and music

Rondino No. 1

The First Rondino is in G-sharp minor and begins with the tempo marking Andantino.

Rondino No. 2

The Second Rondino is in C-sharp minor and is marked Vivace.

Reception

Erik Tawaststjerna, who authored seminal biography on Sibelius, was an early, vocal advocate for many of the composer's piano pieces.

Robert Layton characterizes the Two Rondinos as "closely related ... in character" to the Three Sonatinas for solo piano from the same year, and as such, he endorses as "highly probable" the music lexicographer and critic Eric Blom's speculation that the rondinos might have originated as movements for a incomplete fourth sonatina, with the First Rondo as a central slow movement and the Second Rondino as "delightful finale".^[3]

Discography

The Hungarian pianist Ervin László made the world premiere studio recording of Rondino No. 1 in 1959 for RCA Victor; Rondino No. 2, on the other hand, was first recorded in 1971 by the Japanese pianist Izumi Tateno for EMI.^[2] The sortable table below lists this and other commercially available recordings of the Rondinos:

No.	Pianist	Runtimes[a]		Rec.[b]	Recording venue	Label	Ref.
		Op. 68/1	Op. 68/2
1	Izumi Tateno	2:45	1:55	1971		EMI Classics	[c]
2	Erik T. Tawaststjerna	3:39	1:59	1981	Studio BIS, Djursholm	BIS	[d]
3	Marita Viitasalo [fi]	3:27	2:07	1994	Järvenpää Hall [fi]	Finlandia	[e]
4	Annette Servadei [ja]	3:07	1:55	1993	St George's Church, Brandon Hill	Olympia	[f]
5	Eero Heinonen [fi]	3:32	1:55	1998	YLE M2 Studio, Helsinki	Finlandia	[g]
6	Håvard Gimse	3:31	1:48	2000	St Martin's Church, East Woodhay	Naxos	[h]
7	Katriina Korte	2:59	1:56	2001	Järvenpää Hall [fi]	Alba [fi]	[i]
8	Olli Mustonen					Ondine	[j]
9	Tuija Hakkila			2008	Nya Paviljongen	Alba [fi]	[k]
10	Folke Gräsbeck [fi]	3:16	1:56	2009	Kuusankoski Hall [fi]	BIS	[l]
11	Joseph Tong	3:00	1:48	2014	Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building	Quartz	[m]
12	Janne Mertanen	4:16	1:45	2015	[Unknown], Helsinki	Sony Classical	[n]
13	Terhi Dostal [fi]					Alba [fi]	[o]

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

1. All runtimes are official, as printed on CD or LP liner notes.
2. Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
3. I. Tateno–EMI Classics (7491062) 1988
4. E. Tawaststjerna–BIS (CD–196) 1987
5. M. Viitasalo–Finlandia (4509–98984–2) 1995
6. A. Servadei–Olympia (OCD 633) 1997
7. E. Heinonen–Finlandia (8573–80776–2) 2000
8. H. Gimse–Naxos (8.554814) 2001
9. K. Korte–Alba (ABCA 159) 2001
10. O. Mustonen–Ondine (ODE 1014–2) 2002
11. T. Hakkila–Alba (ABCD 297) 2010
12. F. Gräsbeck–BIS (CD–1927/29) 2010
13. J. Tong–Quartz (QTZ 2111) 2015
14. J. Mertanen–Sony Classics (888751614222) 2015
15. T. Dostal–Label (ABCD 514) 2022

References

1. Dahlström 2003, p. 303.
2. Dahlström 2003, p. 302.
3. Layton 1993, p. 193.

Sources

• Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11159-0.
• Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
• Layton, Robert (1993) [1965]. Sibelius. (The Master Musicians Series) (4th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028713222.

External links

• Two Rondinos, Op. 68: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project