Finland’s most famous composer. He wrote seven symphonies, a violin concerto and a number of suites for orchestra. I have listened to all of the symphonies, and like them all. The easiest to get to know is definitely the second (which was an international hit pretty much as soon as it was performed), but the third is also very appealing. The Karelia suite and the Finlandia tone poem are also very good. The former is quite famous, and I think it may have been a TV theme at some point, though I couldn’t say what to. (I’m told it was used for the BBC current affairs programme "This week", but this programme predates me, so I hope it was also used on something I really have seen.)
Interestingly, Sibelius’s last published works came out in the 1920s. That means that he was alive for about 30 years and not producing anything he considered worthy of publishing. Apparently, he spent much of that period working on an eighth symphony. He sent some material to a publisher at one point, saying that the final work would be eight times as long, and that he thought it was the best stuff he’d ever done. However, he grew increasingly self-critical, eventually asked for the material back from the publisher and burnt it.
© G World