Chad's fifth-grade class

Jean Sibelius: Symphonies No. 2 and 3; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Simon Rattle, conducting

My friend Chad H. asked me to accompany him to Sioux Falls. He wanted some help picking out some classical music CD’s. Well, who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to spend somebody else’s money to buy CD’s. He figured that he had enough money to buy five recordings. Of the five, I only remember one specifically.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. As much as I love the entire work, the last two movements take my breath away. Mr. Sibelius treats the third movement as a six-and-a-half-minute long introduction to the fourth movement. With the exception of two chorale-like sections that bring the musical aerobic heart rate down, the third movement smacks of anticipation, like waiting for the parade, getting ready for the prom or the last few days before for Christmas. Something’s coming and you just KNOW it’s going to be great. And Sibelius is with you all the way on this one, baby. In fact he can’t wait. He caved. No pause … right into the fourth movement.

And what an entrance! Heroism, pageantry, majesty, gravitas, decorum, honor, glory, praise, solemnity and stateliness – for fifteen sublime minutes. Sometimes the Fins dub this work as the “Symphony of Independence” as Mr. Sibelius composed it at a time of Russian sanctions on Finnish language and culture. I don’t know how much tangible Finnish nationalism Sibelius injected into his most famous symphony, but it certainly stirs the soul in the direction of national pride – for anybody’s country, really.

Chad told me on the way home that he intended to play these CD’s during quiet time in his fifth-grade classroom. That brought me to the verge of tears. We never had anything like that during my entire elementary education. I asked him some months later how his fifth-graders liked the music. He said that they loved it; sometimes asking, in fact, if he would turn the music on. How encouraging!

I took a trip during April of 1997 out to Yellowstone National Park, then south to Jackson, Wyoming. I needed a place to stay for the night. So I found a swanky condo up on a hill that faced northwest toward the Grand Tetons. It had been a long day of driving and I needed to create a relaxing moment. I had a pizza delivered to my little corner of paradise, took it out on the patio as a thunderstorm prepared to pass over the mountains, unpacked my discman, armed it with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 and donned a set of Denon headphones. I watched the mountains and the storm, munched on pizza, listened to programmatic music, considered all of the elements that created this faultless scene and thought to myself, Is this much perfection legal?

Credits: To the Grand Tetons. What beauty! Thank you for my moment.