Life and work

11-year-old Sibelius in 1876. Sibelius was born in Hmeenlinna in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland, the son of Swedish-speaking doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius ne Borg. Although known by the typical Finnish and Swedish name "Janne" to his fa mily, during his student years he began using the French form of his name, "Jean ", inspired by the business card of his seafaring uncle.[4] He is now universall y known as Jean Sibelius. Jean's younger brother Christian Sibelius (18691922), MD, university professor an d head of Lapinlahti Asylum, was a psychiatrist and founder of modern psychiatry in Finland. The rapid rise of Romantic Nationalism in Europe was inspired by the philosophy of Hegel and had a profound effect on educational systems in Europe. The gradual demise of Latin was accompanied by opportunities to study more native languages . In Finland this meant either Finnish or Swedish, which became part of the syll abus, from elementary school up to university. Young Janne Sibelius went to the Finnish-speaking Hmeenlinnan normaalilyseo, which he attended from 1876 to 1885. But his first language remained Swedish all his life. Romantic Nationalism was t o become a crucial element in Sibelius' artistic output and his political leanin gs. From around the age of 15, he set his heart on becoming a great violin virtu oso, and he did become quite an accomplished player of the instrument, even publ icly performing the last two movements of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Hel sinki. Sibelius in 1889. After Sibelius graduated from high school in 1885, he began to study law at the Imperial Alexander University of Finland (now the University of Helsinki). Howev er, he was more interested in music than in law, and he soon quit his studies. F rom 1885 to 1889 Sibelius studied music in the Helsinki music school (now the Si belius Academy). One of his teachers there was Martin Wegelius. Sibelius continu ed studying in Berlin (from 1889 to 1890 with Albert Becker) and in Vienna (from 1890 to 1891). It was around this time that he finally abandoned his cherished violin playing aspirations: "It was a very painful awakening when I had to admit that I had begun my training for the exacting career of a virtuoso too late". According to Sibelius's biographer Erik Tawaststjerna, he was an enthusiastic Wa gnerian at the beginning of the 1890s but then began to feel disgust for his mus ic, calling it pompous and vulgar. Sibelius in 1891. On 10 June 1892, Jean Sibelius married Aino Jrnefelt (18711969) at Maxmo. Their ho me, called Ainola, was completed at Lake Tuusula, Jrvenp in 1903. They had six daug hters: Eva, Ruth, Kirsti (who died at a very young age), Katarina, Margareta and Heidi. Eva married an industrial heir Arvi Paloheimo and later herself became t he CEO of the Paloheimo Corporation. Ruth Snellman was a prominent actress, Kata rina Ilves wife of a banker, and Heidi Blomstedt a designer, her husband Aulis B lomstedt being an architect. Margareta married the conductor Jussi Jalas, previo usly Blomstedt, Aulis Blomstedts brother. In 1908, Sibelius underwent a serious operation for suspected throat cancer. The impact of this brush with death has been said to have inspired works that he co mposed in the following years, including Luonnotar and the Fourth Symphony. Sibelius spent long periods abroad studying in Vienna and Berlin 1889-91 and 190 0-1901 with family in Italy. He composed, conducted and socialized actively in S candinavian Countries, UK, France and Germany. In 1914 he was the composer of th e year at the Norfolk Music Festival in Conn., USA, premiering his symphonic poe m The Oceanids commissioned by the millionaire Carl Stoeckel.[5] Sibelius met ex

-President Taft in Washington DC and also visited Canada briefly. He had five to urs in England 1905-1922. After 1930 he did not travel abroad again. Instead he became a representative figure of the Finnish Music and received a constant flow of dignitaries and delegations in Ainola until his last days. When freemasonry was revived in Finland, having been forbidden during the Russia n sovereignty, Sibelius was one of the founding members of Suomi Lodge Nr 1 in 1 922 and later the Grand Organist of the Grand Lodge of Finland. He composed the ritual music used in Finland (op 113) in 1927 and added two new pieces composed 1946. The new revision of the ritual music of 1948 is one of his last works.[6] Sibelius in 1923. Sibelius loved nature, and the Finnish landscape often served as material for hi s music. He once said of his Sixth Symphony, "[It] always reminds me of the scen t of the first snow." The forests surrounding Ainola are often said to have insp ired his composition of Tapiola. On the subject of Sibelius's ties to nature, on e biographer of the composer, Erik W. Tawaststjerna, wrote the following: Even by Nordic standards, Sibelius responded with exceptional intensity to the m oods of nature and the changes in the seasons: he scanned the skies with his bin oculars for the geese flying over the lake ice, listened to the screech of the c ranes, and heard the cries of the curlew echo over the marshy grounds just below Ainola. He savoured the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal sc ents and colours.[7] The year 1926 saw a sharp and lasting decline in Sibelius's output: after his Se venth Symphony he only produced a few major works in the rest of his life. Argua bly the two most significant were incidental music for Shakespeare's The Tempest and the tone poem Tapiola. For most of the last thirty years of his life, Sibel ius even avoided talking about his music publicly. There is substantial evidence that Sibelius worked on an eighth symphony. He pro mised the premiere of this symphony to Serge Koussevitzky in 1931 and 1932, and a London performance in 1933 under Basil Cameron was even advertised to the publ ic. However, the only concrete evidence for the symphony's existence on paper ar e a 1933 bill for a fair copy of the first movement and short draft fragments fi rst published and played in 2011.[8][9] Sibelius had always been quite self-crit ical; he remarked to his close friends, "If I cannot write a better symphony tha n my Seventh, then it shall be my last." Since no manuscript survives, sources c onsider it likely that Sibelius destroyed most traces of the score, probably in 1945, during which year he certainly consigned a great many papers to the flames .[10] His wife Aino recalled, "In the 1940s there was a great auto da f at Ainola. My husband collected a numbe r of the manuscripts in a laundry basket and burned them on the open fire in the dining room. Parts of the Karelia Suite were destroyed I later saw remains of t he pages which had been torn out and many other things. I did not have the stren gth to be present and left the room. I therefore do not know what he threw on to the fire. But after this my husband became calmer and gradually lighter in mood ."[11] Sibelius in 1939. On 1 January 1939, Sibelius participated in an international radio broadcast whi ch included the composer conducting his Andante Festivo. The performance was pre served on transcription discs and later issued on CD. This is probably the only surviving example of Sibelius interpreting his own music.[12] Since 1903 Sibelius had lived in the country, but 1939-1944 Jean and Aino had ag ain a residence in Helsinki. After the war he came to the city only a couple of times. The so-called "Silence of Ainola" appears a myth, knowing that in additio n to countless official visitors and visiting colleagues also his grandchildren and great grandchildren spent their holidays in Ainola. Sibelius avoided public statements about other composers, but Tawaststjerna and Sibeliussecretary Santeri Levas have documented his private conversations in whic

h he considered Bartk and Shostakovich the most talented composers of the younger generations. In the 1950s he actively promoted the young Finnish composer Einoj uhani Rautavaara. His 90th birthday, in 1955, was widely celebrated and both the Philadelphia Orch estra under Eugene Ormandy and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham gave special performances of his music in Finland. The orchestras and t heir conductors also met the composer at his home; a series of memorable photogr aphs were taken to commemorate the occasions. Both Columbia Records and EMI rele ased some of the pictures with albums of Sibelius's music. Beecham was honored b y the Finnish government for his efforts to promote Sibelius both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Tawaststjerna also related an endearing anecdote regarding Sibelius's death: [He] was returning from his customary morning walk. Exhilarated, he told his wif e Aino that he had seen a flock of cranes approaching. "There they come, the bir ds of my youth," he exclaimed. Suddenly, one of the birds broke away from the fo rmation and circled once above Ainola. It then rejoined the flock to continue it s journey. Two days afterwards Sibelius died of a brain hemorrhage, at age 91 (o n 20 September 1957), in Ainola, where he is buried in the garden. Another wellknown Finnish composer, Heino Kaski, died that same day. Aino lived there for th e next twelve years until she died on 8 June 1969; she is buried with her husban d. In 1972, Sibelius's surviving daughters sold Ainola to the State of Finland. The Ministry of Education and the Sibelius Society of Finland opened it as a museum in 1974. In 2011, a fragment was discovered of what appeared to be an early dra ft of the missing eighth symphony.[13]