Composer
Jean Sibelius
Finland's national composer, master of the symphony - and of a thirty-year silence.
Jean Sibelius became a national hero in Finland while it was still a part of the Russian Empire, and his Finlandia became an anthem for the country's independence. But his greatest achievement was in the symphony: seven works of growing concentration and originality that make him one of the great symphonists of the 20th century.
Life in brief
Sibelius was born in 1865 in Hämeenlinna, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, ruled by Russia, into a Swedish-speaking family. He dreamed of being a violin virtuoso but turned to composition, studying in Helsinki, Berlin, and Vienna. The Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, became a lifelong source of inspiration, and his choral symphony Kullervo (1892), based on it, made him famous at home.
As Russia tightened its grip on Finland, his music took on patriotic meaning. Finlandia (1899) was so stirring that it was sometimes performed under other titles to evade Russian censorship; Finland became independent in 1917. A state pension from the Finnish government allowed him to devote himself to composition, and in 1904 he moved with his wife Aino to a house called Ainola, in the forests at Järvenpää, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Then came one of the great mysteries of music history. After completing his Seventh Symphony (1924) and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he published almost nothing more for the last thirty years of his life. He worked on an Eighth Symphony for years but, unsatisfied, burned the manuscript in the 1940s. He died at Ainola in 1957, aged 91.
Music and style
Sibelius's music is rooted in the landscapes and legends of the North: forests, lakes, vast skies, and long winters. His symphonies grow from small melodic cells that gradually build into large, inevitable-feeling structures, and he was famous for his concentration: his Seventh Symphony compresses an entire symphony into a single movement. He described being moved by the sight of sixteen swans flying overhead while writing his Fifth Symphony, whose finale contains a famous swinging "swan" theme in the horns.
Key works
- Finlandia (1899) - a stirring symphonic poem whose hymn-like central melody became a national song.
- Violin Concerto in D minor (1904) - one of the most popular violin concertos of the 20th century.
- Symphonies Nos. 1 - 7 (1899 - 1924) - especially No. 2, No. 5, and the single-movement No. 7.
- The Swan of Tuonela - a haunting tone poem featuring the English horn as a swan gliding on the river of the dead.
- Valse triste - a melancholy waltz, one of his most popular short pieces.
- Karelia Suite and Tapiola.
Legacy
Sibelius's symphonies influenced composers from Vaughan Williams to many later symphonists and film composers, and his music remains central to Finnish identity: his birthday is celebrated in Finland as a day of Finnish music, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki is named after him.
Where to start listening: Finlandia is the obvious first listen. Then try the finale of Symphony No. 5, with its majestic "swan" theme, and the Violin Concerto.