Belsazars Gaestabud, Suite from the Incidental Music, Op. 51 (Belshazzar's Feast)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) composed the incidental music for the play Belsazars g?stabud (Belshazzar's Feast), by Hjalmar Fredrik Eugen Procop?, in 1906. In eight movements for orchestra and singers, the work premiered in Helsinki on November 7, 1906, at the Swedish Theatre with the composer conducting, and 21 more performances followed over the next three months. In 1907, Sibelius extracted four of the numbers for a purely orchestral suite, and this was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Society on September 25 of that year, along with Sibelius' Symphony No. 3, again with the composer conducting. The four movements included in the suite are: 1. Oriental March (originally Alla marcia); 2. Solitude (originally The Jewish Girl's Song); 3. Nocturne (originally Prelude: Notturno); 4. Khadra's Dance (originally Dance of Life and Dance of Death). Instrumentation: 2(2nd dPicc).1.2.0: 2.0.0.0: Perc(4): Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set).