JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Part 1 FINLAND AWAKES

Tender Is The North was the title taken from a poem by Tennyson and
given to a celebrated series of concerts which took place in the Barbican
back in 1992 was it really that long ago? This is the first of two
biographical sketches to celebrate the 150 th anniversaries of both Jean
Sibelius and Carl Nielsen, two great composers who emerged at the
same time from different parts of the North, quite different. They are not
joined at the hip, quite independent of each other but their names get
interlinked, like Mozart and Haydn or Debussy and Ravel. Tender is the
North brought together the seven symphonies of Sibelius and the six
symphonies of Nielsen and some Scandinavian paintings. The Nielsen
concerts were played by the City of Birmingham Orchestra under Simon
Rattle; the Sibelius concerts were played by the London Symphony
Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, its then Chief Guest Conductor. He had
previously recorded them all with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He
twice did the whole Sibelius cycle again. They were all monumental
performances.
-----------------------For most people brought up on a basic diet of European music, the first
acquaintance they may have had with Sibelius usually comes like a
refreshing cool wind. It heralded a new voice free for the most part from
the excesses of the nineteenth century, from Berlioz to Wagner or Liszt
to Mahler. Sibelius himself claimed, where others offer cocktails, I offer
pure cold water. Admittedly, to begin with, he had his influences,
notably Tchaikovsky and an early infection from a dose of Wagner but
very soon a totally independent voice emerges in the most early of his
works such as the Kullervo Symphony. The voice of Kullervo at the
outset is the same voice as in Tapiola near to his early curtain call. His
development into maturity was not to have to find his voice but gradually
to pare down his style to an absolute minimum. Where different
experiences may be encountered by a first listener, it is probably
because there are three distinct Sibeliuses, running in parallel
throughout his career. At his greatest is the Sibelius of the symphonies,
works of abstract form without programme. Then there comes the

Sibelius whose works were inspired by the great Finnish epic poem, The
Kalevala, usually in the form of symphonic poems but to which can be
added others of the same ilk such as En Saga and the near
impressionist Oceanides. The third classification consists of those
numerous works written as incidental music for the theatre, Swanwhite,
Pellas and Mlisande and The Tempest. Added to these are Kuolema
(Death), a ballet from which came the work that rocketed him into fame,
Valse Triste, as did Finlandia which was written for a student gala and
fired up the Finnish nation in their struggle against Russian domination.
Whilst the fourth symphony of Sibelius remains his most bewildering
work even for the most ardent of his followers, Finlandia at one time
became the staple output of every brass band from Barnsley to Burnley.
From Sibelius came the distinct voice of the Tender North but unlike so
many of his contemporaries such as the nationalist schools of Russia
and Spain you will not encounter any Finnish folk song as such, no
Finnish dance, no polonaises or fandangos, no Rondes de Printemps,
no Greensleeves, but one voice only, that of Sibelius.
----I have written before that one never knows where genius is going to
suddenly land. In the case of Benjamin Britten it was in Lowestoft, at the
most easterly end of England; in the case of Bohuslav Martinu it was
over 200 steps up a church tower in Polica in Moravia on the fringes of
the Czech lands. Do not therefore be surprised to find that Johan Julius
Christian Sibelius should be born in a backwoods town called
Hmeenlinna in Finland, then a grand duchy, an outpost of the Russian
Tsarist empire. His name was shortened to Janne or Jan by which he
was known but during his youth he discovered some visiting cards of his
uncle Jan, a sailor, who on his voyages used the French version, Jean.
So our Jan adopted it for himself also. It was with the Treaty of
Fredrikshamn in 1809 following the defeat of Sweden in the Napoleonic
Wars that Finland was seceded from Sweden to become a duchy for
Tsar Alexander I. It remained largely autonomous but with nationalist
movements arising in the nineteenth century there were repressive
responses. The middle class of Finland and the civil service spoke in
Swedish and its literature was Swedish. Finnish was the language of the
lower classes but it was in Finnish that the epic poem, the Kalevala, was
compiled by Elias Lnnrot from Finnish mythology in the early nineteenth
century. (I have one reader who does not attend our class and who
complains that my notes never mention anything Welsh. So for his sake,
I liken the relationship between the Swedish domination of Finland to
that of the English in Wales. (Huw, thats your lot). Sibelius was born on
8th December 1865. His father was an army doctor who died of cholera

in an epidemic when Sibelius was three. The father had been a heavy
drinker and had left debts as a result of which the family struggled in
near penury. There was an older sister and a younger brother and the
family was Swedish speaking. It remained his mother tongue. Oddly his
wife, Aino Jarnefelt, came from a distinguished family which spoke
Finnish and whilst she would write to him in Finnish he would relapse in
his replies into Swedish.
There were musical traits in the family but nothing to suggest that here
would be Finlands most famous son. The first sign of any musical
leanings was when he was six. His aunt Julie who lived with them
introduced him to the square piano in their home. He did not take to the
instrument, possibly because with his innate feel for pitch, he sensed it
was a whole tone out of tune. Later, when about 14, he began to learn
the violin obtaining some tuition from the local bandmaster. Whilst he
dreamed of becoming a virtuoso it remains difficult to comprehend where
he received the necessary training whether for the violin or composition
which he started fairly early. At home he and his siblings were a typical
nineteenth century home spun family piano trio. There was no music to
be heard at the time, certainly not in Hmeenlinna, and even Helsinki
had no orchestra until the 1882. The trio would play Haydn and
Beethoven at home and in neighbours houses. Meantime, Jan started
learning composition on his own picking it up from a manual on musical
theory..
With general education being introduced in 1866, a Finnish speaking
primary school was opened in Hmeenlinna which Jan entered at age 7
although many of the boys were Swedish speaking. There, he was
introduced to poetry, both Swedish and Finnish, in particular to the
Kalevala which opened up Finnish legend to him. I know no Finnish
myself and I have only read translated excerpts of the Kalevala. It is
very similar in its scansion to Longfellows Hiawatha, like a horse being
ridden. Musically Sibelius reproduced this trochaic rhythm in his
symphonic poem Nightride and Sunrise written in 1908. Jan moved on
to secondary school at 10 and nine years passed by with academic
progress not too distinguished but devoting his interest to music, playing
in the school orchestra and as a member of a string quartet. At 19 he
gained a university place in Helsinki and enrolled in the faculty for law.
Enrolment was as far as he would get with legal studies. From 1885 to
1889 he was studying music at university under Martin Wegelius the
founder of conservatory and who had detected the unusual talent of this
particular pupil. Sibeliuss learning of the violin over about five years had
developed as to be able to give public performances of concertos by

Mendelssohn and David. It still remains difficult to detect from how and
where his skill developed. Most talented players usually learn from
master class virtuosi. There was no orchestra in Helsinki until the
Helsinki Orchestra (later the Helsinki Philharmonic) was founded by
Robert Kajanus in 1882 and whatever concertos Sibelius played were
only accompanied by a piano. The works he later would write for the
violin, his concerto and the six humoresques show a composer who
knew the workings of the violin inside out, who, unlike Brahms or Elgar
to name but two, needed no technical help in the process of writing his
own.
In his student days in Helsinki he was fast developing his interest in
composition. He was also becoming familiar with cigars and drink.
Amongst his companions was the Germam/Italian composer, Busoni,
who was a lecturer in piano at Helsinki. He led a group calling
themselves the Lescovites, named after Busonis dog, Lesko, who
accompanied them whilst they painted the town red. The group included
Sibelius, Adolf Paul and the Jarnefelt brothers. The Jarnefelts were an
artistic family, their father was a District Governor and the three sons
each pursued separate art forms. Armas became a composer mainly
known for two orchestral miniatures, Berceuse and Praeludium; Arvid
was the playwright of Kuolema, which included Valse Triste in the
incidental music written by Sibelius. Probably the most celebrated of the
three was the artist, Eero (Erik) who set up in Paris. His most dramatic
painting was The Burning of the Brushwood which was prominent at an
exhibition in London I went to called Paris 1902. As regards Sibelius,
he had an eye on Aino, one of their sisters. It was a wandering eye,
mind you, as there were others he wanted to try out. Still, after a few
other test drives, it was Aino that he would marry. The music he was
writing were largely trios and quartets which do not get played today but
some have been unearthed and can be found on disc.
Following four years at the Institute Sibelius gained a scholarship and
grant which would take him to Berlin to study composition under Albert
Becker. He had had thoughts of studying at St Petersburg with Rimsky
Korsakov but Wegelius, who was a stiff dick and an almost exclusive
Wagnerian into the bargain, would not countenance this. Brahms was
particularly unmentionable as was Tchaikovsky who was beginning by
1889 to be influential on the fledgling Sibelius and would remain so for
the next ten years. It is perhaps here that we should take a break and
see where we are in time. Sibelius was one of those born in the second
half of the nineteenth century whose contemporaries included, Mahler,
Nielsen, Elgar, Delius and Debussy. Berlioz was still alive when Sibelius

was born; Brahms in his twenties; Wagner at his height. By the time
Sibelius was leaving for Berlin in 1889, Brahms was still alive but his four
symphonies by then behind him; Elgar was slow to get known and would
not emerge as a force until 1900 when he was 43; Liszt and Wagner had
departed this earth for Valhalla; Mahler had just premiered his first
symphony; Dvorak was in top form but remained to book his ticket to
New York; Debussy was still in a kind of pre-Raphaelite stage (La
Demoiselle Elue) but with LApres-Midi just round the corner. Into that
world, Sibelius entered having hardly heard an orchestra and now
arriving in Berlin just in time to hear the unleashing of Richard Strausss
Don Juan. He must have been thunder struck at the sound he would
hear.
A year in Berlin and to a lesser extent afterwards in Vienna which he
preferred had a considerable effect on the development of Sibelius and
the direction he would take. This came from, his social life and life style,
his musical instruction, the music he would hear and the music he would
compose. It was effectively his first time away from home. Earlier the
family had moved to Helsinki when he went to university there. Now he
was in Berlin on his own with a grant and money which he burnt before
he got it. Just like a fresher on his first pub crawl. There were people
about him he knew including Busoni who had left his teaching post in
Helsinki, Adolf Paul and one or other of the Jarnefelts. Later on there
was Carl Nielsen who had just written his opus 1, the Little Suite for
Strings, and which I believe was the first time that our two subject
composers of these lectures would meet. Sibelius was drinking heavily,
spending heavily and borrowing heavily whilst buying the best seats at
the opera and worrying about payment afterwards. If the drink was
flowing, so were the girls whom Robert Layton described as not so much
interested in music, as in musicians. It was during this period that
Sibelius began to have doubts as to his dream of being a concert
violinist. He certainly had an innate ability to play. He had also realised
that he suffered from bouts of nerves when playing solo and developed a
taste like lead in his mouth, an experience he said he only otherwise
suffered when visiting the bank manager. His lessons with Albert Becker
were as dry as dust. Becker was known as a composer who taught
counterpoint which bored Sibelius to tears. He complained in his letters
to Wegelius that he knew the German hymnal by heart and that J S
Bach was not exactly his cup of Finnish breakfast tea. There was no
inspiration from that quarter. Already, straight from after his arrival ,
Sibelius had been to one Wagner opera after another as well as to hear
Don Giovanni; he had heard Hans von Bulow conduct the Beethoven
symphonies and wrote eulogising over Berliozs Llio . Despite being

fired up with discovery he himself had slipped into a composers block.

Inspiration came from an unexpected quarter in the form of Robert
Kajanus and the first performance in Germany of his Aino symphony
written in 1885. Here was that conductor that Wegelius had disparaged,
now showing his metal as a composer. Aino is the name of a heroine
from the Kalevala (by the way, my researches show it is pronounced
Collar followed to rhyme by Vollar). Kajanus had also written an
orchestral piece, The Funeral of Kullervo, and would go on to produce
some 200 opus numbers. The Aino symphony set Sibelius alight, his
first realisation of what wealth there was to be gained from the Kalevala,
an inspirational signal for a national style based not on folk music but on
folklore. One thing that Busoni realized was that Sibelius was flagging
and his composing flame needed fanning. He therefore pulled him away
and took him to Leipzig to hear a new piano quintet. With someone now
pushing him, Sibelius began writing his own piano quintet. His quartets
before then are interesting but not yet showing a level of individual
personality. The piano quintet has stayed unpublished and most people
do not know it. Yet it has to be heard. It is written in five movements (as
would be his Kullervo symphony and his quartet voces intimae); it has
a romantic passion and it shows the finger prints of the Sibelius we
know, the composer who can write a common chord in middle C and
make you feel you have never heard it before. This work is pre-mature,
a tad naive but it is nearly there. For Sibelius the muse was at work.
Wegelius was critical, but, blow him, I have to confess, I love it.
After a short summer break back home and in particular re-wooing Aino,
Sibelius was off again to Vienna at the suggestion of Busoni and armed
with a letter of introduction to Brahms. It didnt get him very far as the
grumpy old man, then all of 56 years, was not taking pupils on. However
Sibelius took lessons from Karl Goldmark, then a successful opera
composer in Vienna. He is best remembered for his Rustic Wedding
Symphony, a favourite lollipop of Sir Thomas Beecham. By this time
Sibelius was making his first attempts at orchestral writing and produced
two overtures and a Scne de Ballet. Goldmarks advice was to keep
chiselling away at ones composition as Beethoven had done, advice
which would serve Sibelius well. His lifestyle of spend it before you
borrow it and wine women and song continued and twice he found
himself in hospital, claiming he was dying. Whatever it was that was
ailing him we shall never know but it is suspected he would not tell Aino
about it. What we do know is that the hospital wouldnt let him out until
the bill got paid. He applied for a position as a violinist with the Vienna
Philharmonic but fortunately as it turned out he was turned down
because of his nerves. He spent much time listening to fellow students

play their instruments, gauging their range, especially on one day the cor
anglais which would serve him well for the prelude of an opera he had in
mind called The Building of the Boat. He got to hear and was quite
taken by Bruckners third symphony. All of this fun and games would
come to an end with his return to Finland and the need to think about
making a living. All of this except for one project, the embryonic genesis
of which had been in Vienna and would continue on his return. It was to
be his first major composition, Kullervo.
1891, a new decade and work on Kullervo, familiarising himself with the
story and the rhythm of the poetry and the Finnish language. It was to
be called a symphonic poem but to all intents it is a programme
symphony. Sibelius toured the country and went to listen to a celebrated
runic singer. He posted his progress to Aino to whom he was now
engaged. Other works of his had been written and were championed by
Kajanus but relations with Wegelius became more strained. The rivalry
between Finn and Swede was still about. Wegelius was a Swedman
and Kajanus a Fennman. For its central theme, Kullervo, having
attempted to persuade two maidens to join him in his sledge seizes a
third and rapes her. Only afterwards did he discover she was his long
lost sister. She commits suicide and in the end he falls on his sword.
The work was ready for performance in April 1892 and conducted by
Sibelius to a tumultuous reception. Over the next year there were three
further successful performances but fierce objections from the Swedish
speaking critics. Sibelius then decided to withdraw the work and forbade
its performance during his life time. No-one knows why. Its first
complete revived performance took place soon after his death in 1957
conducted by his son in law. It was first recorded by the Bournemouth
Orchestra conducted by Paavo Berglund in 1971. It has now joined the
repertory shoulder to shoulder with the others. I was one of those who
got to know my Sibelius pre-Kullervo. All I knew was that despite it
having been highly acclaimed he had withdrawn it without reason. When
I first came to hear it I had expected to hear unschooled juvenilia,
something that Sibelius would not have been satisfied with. But it is not
the case. It is written for soprano and baritone solo, a male voice choir
which acts as the chorus to narrate the story in two of its movements.
What is astonishing is it has striking originality and the orchestration and
power of a master composer. One is left failing to understand Sibeliuss
dissatisfaction. I have not found any acceptable theory but I have one of
my own which may be no more satisfactory but here goes. I think that
the pressure probably came from Aino. They were engaged at the time
of composition and married soon after its first performance. The story
originates from Finnish legend but nevertheless the subject matter is still

unpleasant, particularly to women. It is one, first of attempted seduction,

followed by sexual assault, then rape which turns out to have been
incestuous. He had written to Aino that he planned only a male choir as
women members would find the sexual matters distasteful although
Aino herself would understand. Thats where I reckon that Sibelius got it
wrong and that Aino had the same revulsion as any woman would have
had. Once married, she could say, Jan, if you perform that ghastly story
again when I am around, Im out. This episode is the central theme of
the work, and incapable of being revised. So it had to go. Am I wrong?
Sibelius and Aino were married two months after Kullervo and
honeymooned in Karelia, a wild area which covers the eastern part of
Finland and Western Russia alike.
Historically it has changed
boundaries and has been occupied in part by Sweden, Germany and
Lithuania. The Karelia Suite is often said to have been inspired by the
couples experiences there but thats not quite so. The suite is of course
popular for its three movements, intermezzo, ballade and the alla marcia
but it is a suite only, drawn from incidental music he wrote for a historical
pageant for Helsinki university to raise money for the Karelian capital
Viipuri. The pageant has several scenes depicting events from the 13 th
century to the 19th century. It was written following a resurgence of
Russian interference in Finland. Russia had insisted that Finnish mail
should bear a Russian stamp. So successful was the pageant, so noisy
the audience, that the music could not be heard. Sibelius was again
giving voice to Finnish independence. What we have of the original lasts
50 minutes amounting to eight tableaux, parts of which have been
reconstructed. About as much as that again was destroyed by Sibelius
himself in the 1940s in the fireplace of his dining room together with the
manuscript of his eighth symphony, .
The success of Kullervo prompted Kajanus to commission an orchestral
work from Sibelius in 1893 which was the original version of En Saga.
Kajanus was a bit disappointed as he had hoped it would have the
magnitude of Kullervo. En Saga is about 18 minutes long. It has no
programme but it exudes the atmosphere of a saga which trundles on
like the opening movement of Kullervo. It is never hurried except when it
bursts into a mighty orchestral climax before returning to the trudge of its
anonymous hero on a long slow clarinet into some distant no mans land.
At the same time he was pre-occupied with his.intended opera, The
Building of the Boat. He and Aino had been to Germany on a Wagner
pilgrimage and he was particularly enthusiastic about Parsifal. Later on
in the 1930s he would tell his biographer, Ekman, that he had never

taken to Wagner. Yet so over powering did he find Parsifal that he

began to lose interest in his own project having spent six months on it.
Much of what he had written would have been absorbed into a new work
he now began writing, The Lemminkinen Suite (or the Four Legends).
These are are four distinct tone poems based again on tales of the
Kalevala hero. Lemminkinen and the Maidens of Saari; Lemminkinen
in Tuonela; the Swan of Tuonela; and Lemminkinens Homeward
Journey. The first two and are each twice the length of the second two.
Like Kullervo, these first two went into purdah when Kajanus had
expressed a view that they were not up to par. Sibelius himself was
particularly self-critical and discouragement like this was the last thing he
needed. These first two were revived in the 1950s with their order
switched to accommodate one long and one short on each side of an LP.
Lemminkinen and the Maidens is a bit of a cross breed between Grieg
and Wagner. The country dance could be out of Peer Gynt; the long
development section sounds from out of Tristan. In the second legend,
Lemminkinen is hacked to death as one did, but his mother comes and
stitches him back into life. The Swan of Tuonela is now what originally
was intended to be the prelude to The Building Of The Boat. Tuonela is
the Hades of Finnish legend and is surrounded by a Finnish Styx along
which majestically swims the swan. For the final legend Mum turns
Lemminkinens troubles into horses on which he is able to ride home,
more thrilling than the lone ranger and ending curiously similar to that of
Vltava in Smetanas Ma Vlast.
The Swan of Tuonela merits special mention. Robert Layton describes it
as the first sign of genius, as opposed to talent. (He would not yet
have heard Kullervo). The swan is depicted by a solo cor anglais (the
sound he first heard in Vienna). The orchestral palette is of dark colours.
Only one note on an oboe is heard and then just to access a top note
the cor anglais cannot reach. Great prominence is given to the dark
cellos accompanied by bass drum rolls which give a quiet shudder
effect. The later accompaniment of timpani and harp chords, are as
magical as they are individual. Oddly one feels some similarity with
Debussys Laprs midi dun faune (also written in 1892). What Debussy
did for the flute, Sibelius did for the cor anglais.
Sibeliuss reputation was fast spreading and there soon followed the
Wood Nymph, a work which was played but not published and, thanks to
Osmo Vanska, has been recorded. He wrote two versions in quick
succession. One contains a spoken monologue accompanied by piano
strings and horns. Sibelius then rewrote it for full symphony orchestra,
the longest of his tone poems, about 25 minutes. And has overtones of

Liszt. The themes are the same but are written in quite a different order
in much the same way as the several revisions he made to his fifth
symphony.
Again, let us take a break from the works he was writing and return to
the early 1890s. What had happened to him since his marriage in June
1892? Aino might well have asked. He hardly had any income at the
start and had to depend on his music and a small amount from teaching.
He was offered the position of director of the Conservatoire in Helsinki
only to find that there was an appeal to the Russian authorities by none
less than Robert Kajanus, the man who had been the Sibelius
champion. The appointment was overturned and a brief strain on
relations with Kajanus ensued. One has to remember that Kajanus,
although himself a composer, always recognized the innate mastery of
Sibelius and forewent his own career to ensure that the works of Sibelius
would be bolstered.
Sibelius and Aino had soon started a family and had six daughters, one
of whom died in infancy. Whilst he was not always around Aino
periodically returned to her parents. Still their marriage would last 65
years until he died. His social habits did not change and he could be out
for long dinners, famously described as symposiums, sometimes lasting
for two days. The Symposium is best known as a painting by Askeli
Gallen-Kallela showing himself standing behind Oskar Merikanto who
has completely crashed. Robert Kajanus is holding a cigarette, staring,
and Sibelius sits in the foreground in an equally glazed stare. Another
member was Adolf Paul, a Swedish writer, playwright and musician but
who had lived in Finland from age 9. In 1898 Sibelius wrote the
incidental music to Pauls play, King Christian II. Back in 1891 Paul had
written a biographical novel encompassing student life in Berlin which
referred to the boy- genius, Sillen (sic), clearly recognizable as Sibelius,
living it up, lying in bed till afternoon and otherwise on drinking bouts.
When Aino read it, it did not go down too well on the home front. It
became Ainos task to keep Sibelius away from drink in which she
partially succeeded when eventually they moved in 1903 to their new
house, Ainola at Jarvenpaa, then in the countryside.
The 1890s had produced a series of works from Sibelius which roused
Finnish consciousness. In the background was Martin Wegelius, ready
to criticize his former star pupil in the belief there was a higher plane to
be conquered. This jolted Sibelius into action on what was to become
his official Symphony No 1. It would be different from the discarded
Kullervo, an abstract symphony owing perhaps more to Borodin and

Tchaikovsky than to Beethoven and Brahms but the beginning of a cycle

which would evidence Sibelius to be a master of economy and form; a
series which would continue to run side by side with nature tone poems
and Finnish legend as well as incidental music. The first symphony tells
us at the start that this is a lone voice, the lone clarinet playing over a
soft tympani roll which halts, allowing the clarinet to play completely solo.
It owes something to the opening of Tchaikovskys fifth and written in the
same key. This introduction plays no further part until it returns fully
orchestrated to open the last movement. The first movement is the most
individual in the way its development and recapitulation contract into
each other. It is a different sound world to that of the Kalevala works
with its main theme an impression perhaps of the icy surface of GallenKallelas Lake Keitele (as seen on our poster). It is a symphony which
has the excitement of Borodins Polovstian dances. It is a last good
example of the nineteenth century model which started out with the first
of Beethoven and announces in 1899 the arrival of the first of another
great symphonist.
What perhaps prompted Sibelius to write his symphony was that, having
been rejected the position of head of the conservatoire, he had been
awarded a life pension. It was not an enormous sum but it did help pay
the booze bills.
Also in 1899, Nicholas II in the Kremlin was seeking to do a Putin and,
under the so called February Manifesto, seize back Finland .by a policy
of russification, curtailment of free speech and loss of autonomy. There
was strong opposition and resistance which continued through to 1917
and ultimate Finnish independence. Sibelius played his part in 1900 with
the music for a pageant called Scnes Historiques. The last tableau
was called Finland Awakes which Sibelius renamed as, Finlandia.
More than anything else, it fired the country and resistance to Russia
symbolizing its anger, agony and patriotic fervour.
So it is that we arrive at the turn of the century with Jean Sibelius, hardly
having had need to develop his individual voice, laying down his marker
as a true symphonist and at the same time, blazoning to the world
awareness of far off Finland and the name of Sibelius