![]() In 1904, he built a small home in Järvenpää and lived there for the rest of his life. Its overwhelming success assured him of a major position within Scandinavian music that he would never relinquish. Here he composed his first major work, a five-movement symphony of Mahlerian proportions based upon the Kalevala. He even auditioned (unsuccessfully) for the Vienna Philharmonic.ĭespite his love of German music, Sibelius was drawn back to his native Finland in 1891. He heard the first performance of Richard Strauss’ Don Juan as well as the late quartets of Beethoven and works by Busoni, Goldmark, and Brahms. ![]() It was in Berlin that he was exposed to new music in large doses. That plan did not develop, but he did end up in Berlin, where he continued his violin studies and, for the first time, seriously approached composition. In 1889, he left Finland with plans to study with Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg. For the next five years he concentrated on the violin and built a repertoire of several well-known concertos, including Mendelssohn’s. ![]() Like so many others before him, he abandoned his studies to become a musician. In 1885 he entered the University of Helsinki to study law. He began a serious study of the instrument with a local bandmaster at the age of fourteen and soon after was encouraged to pursue a career as a soloist. Critics, however, were not as kind, maintaining that his popularity was due only to the fact that he provided a “safe” alternative to the atonal Second Viennese School and other modernist styles so prominent at the time.Īs a child, Sibelius demonstrated a natural ability both as a composer and a violinist. From 1891 to 1925, he enjoyed worldwide popular fame not only as the musical voice of Finland, but of all Scandinavia. It was during his later school years, however, that he developed a deep interest in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic that would become a source of inspiration to him as a composer. Few are aware that Sibelius was born into a Swedish-speaking family, attended his first Finnish-speaking school at age eleven, and didn't become proficient in the language until reaching manhood. The music of Jean Sibelius has been considered the very embodiment of the Finnish soul for so long that it is surprising to realize that his nationalism developed rather late in his youth. First performance: March 8, 1902, Helsinki.
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