Rakastava, op. 14

Rakastava began in 1894 as a setting for male chorus of texts from the Kanteletar, submitted to a competition in Helsinki where it took second prize. Sibelius returned to the material almost twenty years later and recast it in 1911–12 for string orchestra with timpani and triangle, in three movements — The Lover, The Lover's Path, Good Evening, My Little Bird — that keep the vocal phrasing of the original without any voices. The result stands closer to the late tone poems than to the choral piece it came from.