Jean Sibelius

Violin was the first ambition, and Sibelius hoped to play rather than write; he studied composition in Helsinki, Berlin and Vienna. Kullervo, drawn from the Kalevala, announced a national voice in 1892, and his orchestral works include En saga, The Swan of Tuonela, Finlandia and Tapiola. He composed seven symphonies, the Seventh in a single continuous movement. His orchestral output also includes the Violin Concerto. He was born in Hämeenlinna into a Swedish-speaking family and took the name Jean from a seafaring uncle's visiting cards. After Tapiola in 1926 his output diminished, but he continued to make revisions and arrangements in his later years. Beyond the orchestral works there are choral and solo songs, chamber music, Masonic music and incidental scores for plays by Maeterlinck, Shakespeare and Strindberg. The Karelia Suite, Valse triste and the Lemminkäinen Suite, of which The Swan of Tuonela forms one part, have held their place in the repertoire beside the symphonies and the concerto.