European Tour
Klaus Mäkelä
Lisa Batiashvili Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) 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. Over time, it became one of the most popular violin concertos, with markedly different movements ranging from a cool opening to a sparklingly intense finale.

Sibelius based the four tone poems of Lemminkäinen (1896) on stories from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, where Lemminkäinen is portrayed as a fearless adventurer and charmer—a kind of Finnish Don Juan.

The first tone poem depicts Lemminkäinen’s adventures among the maidens on a mythical, exotic island. In the following two, he journeys to the realm of the dead and is slain, only to be revived in the final movement. The most famous piece from the suite is The Swan of Tuonela, which portrays the mystical bird guarding the underworld.