Jean Sibelius

Among Finnish musicians, Jean Sibelius stands out as a pivotal figure in nationalist composition and a major force shaping both the symphony and the symphonic poem. Born in southern Finland as the middle child among three siblings, he inherited from his physician father a pattern of financial recklessness that bankrupted the household, together with a habit of heavy drinking. Early aptitude for the violin led him to produce his first piece for the instrument, Rain Drops, at age nine.

He entered the University of Helsinki in 1885 intending to study law, yet redirected himself toward music after a single year. Composition lessons came from Martin Wegelius, while violin instruction arrived first from Mitrofan Wasiliev and then from Hermann Csillag; during the same period he formed a close friendship with Busoni. Although he auditioned for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibelius eventually recognized that a career as a violinist lay outside his abilities.

Traveling to Berlin in 1889, he studied counterpoint with Albert Becker and encountered recent music, above all the works of Richard Strauss. In Vienna his teachers were first Karl Goldmark and then Robert Fuchs, the latter widely regarded as his most effective instructor. At this stage Sibelius began considering the Kullervo symphonic poem drawn from the Kalevala legends. After returning to Finland he taught music and, in June 1892, married Aino Järnefelt, daughter of General Alexander Järnefelt, who headed one of the country’s most influential families. The April 1893 premiere of Kullervo caused an immediate sensation, after which Sibelius was regarded as Finland’s foremost composer. The Lemminkäinen suite, begun in 1895 and first heard on 13 April 1896, is now considered the most significant score he had produced up to that point.

In 1897 the Finnish Senate awarded him a temporary pension that later became permanent, an honor granted in place of a major composition professorship at the music school that instead went to Robert Kajanus. His First Symphony, introduced in 1899, met with strong success, yet the reception fell short of the impact created by Finlandia (1899; revised 1900).

During the following decade Sibelius emerged as an international concert figure. Kajanus presented several of his works abroad, while Sibelius himself received invitations to conduct in Heidelberg and Berlin. Although the Second Symphony, premiered in March 1901, was widely interpreted as a declaration of Finnish independence, Sibelius consistently discouraged programmatic readings of his music. His only concerto, for violin, appeared in 1903. The next year he completed a villa outside Helsinki, naming it Ainola after his wife; he would reside there for the remaining fifty-three years of his life. Following surgery in 1908 to remove a throat tumor, Sibelius was urged to give up alcohol and tobacco, a regimen he maintained until 1915; many observers connect the darker mood that entered his music during those years to this health crisis.

He visited England frequently, making his first trip in 1905 at the urging of Granville Bantock. In 1914 he traveled to Norfolk, Connecticut, to conduct his newest work, The Oceanides. Sibelius remained in Finland throughout the war years, devoting himself to the Fifth Symphony. He returned to England for the last time in 1921. Three years later he completed the Seventh Symphony; incidental music for The Tempest (1925) marked his final composition. For the last thirty years of his life he lived quietly, occupied chiefly with revisions, and was widely viewed as the greatest living symphonist. His ninetieth birthday in 1955 was marked by performances of his music throughout the world. Sibelius died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1957.