Asia Tour
Klaus Mäkelä
Janine Jansen Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius started violin lessons when he was 14 years old and was soon completely absorbed by the instrument. In the next decade, he dreamed of becoming a concert violinist, but eventually, he gave up and focused instead on composition. Sibelius' Violin Concerto became his unhappy declaration of love for the violin, and the first version was so technically difficult that the soloists did not master the challenges. 

While his first symphony had been a success, it was strongly influenced by the composer’s admiration of Tchaikovsky. His second symphony was a work written purely in his own style. When Sibelius’ second symphony premiered in Helsinki in 1902, the disgruntlement with the Russian ruling powers had reached new heights in Finland, and the Fennomans’ crusade for the Finnish language and culture had intensified accordingly. In this context, Sibelius − the composer who a few years earlier had given the people the explosive Finlandia, and the equally political The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River − seemed to fit the role of national hero and cultural icon perfectly. Despite the circumstances of the time and the symphony’s unambiguous narrative, the work should not be viewed as a political one. The composer was adamant that his symphonies did not have any programmatic content, and that the music should speak for itself.