A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the final orchestral concert at Lahti's 2006 Sibelius Festival: Tapiola, the 7th Symphony & a Tempest selection. I might perhaps have preferred to hear the pieces in reverse order... or at least with The Tempest first. Treating Tapiola as a warm-up piece seems to me inappropriate. Well, on such occasions, one can't expect to carry away a final musical after-image from the Sibelius Hall of anything other than the traditional Festival encores, Finlandia and/or Valse Triste. So I suppose that makes the order of the scheduled programme somewhat irrelevant.
I don't wish with my above comments to sound a musical snob or denigrate such works as Finlandia or The Tempest. It's just that I don't believe their intention was ever to make such seriously philosophical statements as Tapiola or the 7th Symphony, both of which turn me inside out every time I hear them.

That said, I enjoyed the WHOLE programme immensely. Both of my 'favoured works' were performed with intensity. And the Tempest excerpts were a delight: the mature Sibelius at his most experimental. I understand the leader of the Lahti Sinfonia horn section made the selection we heard, and it was charmingly varied with many less familiar pieces not featured in the standard suite.

A novel experience for me was to sit on the side-balcony immediately above the contrabass section and look down upon the whole orchestra: a vantage point from where one could almost read the score along with Osmo Vänskä! It was a very intimate and privileged way to expreience the music. Most extraordinary was how beautufully balanced the sound remained from that position... a real tribute to the extraordinary Sibelius Hall acoustics which somehow bring everything across to every listener in the auditorium.

I'm sure that many of you who now read this have enjoyed the Lahti Sibelius Festival concerts over the years. Please share with us your own memories and impressions on this forum . . .

Miranda Lewis wrote:

Well, on such occasions, one can't expect to carry away a final musical after-image from the Sibelius Hall of anything other than the traditional Festival encores, Finlandia and/or Valse Triste. So I suppose that makes the order of the scheduled programme somewhat irrelevant.

I am priviledged to say that I have never heard Finlandia as an encore... needless to say, I seen it here and there as an overture.

Personally, I often use my namesake piece Kurkikohtaus from Kuolema suite as an encore, even on concerts where there are no other works by Sibelius. I like it especially after overly pompous symphonic endings, like Tchaikovsky 5th.

Hi Miranda, yes I aggree with you regarding the Lahti Sibelius festival. I was fortunate to attend the 2005 festival when Osmo did all seven symphonies, a fantastic experience. The Finnish maestro and the Lahti orchestra are second to none in Sibelius and the final climax of the seventh symphony still resonates in my mind two year on, but parts of the first symphony were not entirely to my taste. After the final string pizzicato's we had a tumult of applause, I turned to the Lady sat next to me and we both aggreed that the first movement had felt terribly rushed! the lady in question was none other than the mother of the violin virtuoso Tasmin Little. I was amazed when I looked up at the ceiling in the entrance hall to see many stars twinkling at me , apparently the stars were in the same positions as on the 8th December 1865 when Sibelius was born.
I just had to visit Ainola again of course, surely heaven on earth, on my first visit in 1997, standing by the graveside of Aino and Jean Sibelius I was moved to write a short poem of my feelings when I returned home to England, and you can read it at the conclusion of this post. What I would like to ask you is how does it feel to play a leading role in Simon Boswell's novel 'The seven symphonies' which I have yet to read. Here is my poem.

Sibelius Ainola

At Ainola the silence speaks
In symphony and song
Of Kullervo and Tapio
In Tuonela's realm

To an ancient past
Where hero's dwell
And the pure cold water flows

Of nature's terse indifference
To mans grandiose dreams
And a swan hymn beyond compare

At Ainola the silence speaks
In symphony and song
With a pantheistic message
Of life and death--and hope

kullervopete

A very good "summary" of Sibelius Pete, kudos to you for writing a very "spot on" poem.

I imagine actually visiting Sibelius's villa is so moving, that it would bring out the poet in all of us.

Again...silence speaks!

Many thanks for the poem, Kullervopete. It would be great to see more of same from you. (Might you also consider adding a few more questions to the Sibelius Quiz contributors' page?

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In what has become our annual pilgrimage, my wife and I travelled up to Lahti for the final orchestral concert of this autumn's 2008 Sibelius Festival, and Mr Saraste's interpretations were exhilarating. The programme wasn't entirely to my taste — Finlandia + 1st Symphony — but the concert forced me to listen intently to music I wouldn't usually play for myself at home, and that's always an enlightening experience. Sibelius's genius is naturally also present in those works which may not have an immediate personal appeal.
But next year's final concert is an absolute wow! Pohjola's daughter, The Oceanides, Nightride and Sunrise, The Bard & the 4th Symphony. Three of his very greatest works — O, B & 4 — (in my opinion, at least) and two other splendid pieces as well. No way am I going to miss THAT concert!
After the festival performance this year, Leena and I met up with other members of the UK Sibelius Society for a fun dinner at the El Toro restaurant in Lahti. Excellent food! Highly recommended.
(By the way, I also took my grownup kids to Lahti in October for Saraste's performance of the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. The Lahti Sinfonia was brilliantly up to the virtuoso demands and Saraste brought the very best out of them. My kids are much more into indie rock than classical, but they also thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Saraste is a marvellous replacement for Vänskä.)
If there's anybody out there who hasn't yet experienced the Sibelius Hall's extraordinary acoustics, next September's Sibelius Festival would make an excellent excuse…

Hi Miranda [Simon] great to hear your comments on the Lahti Sibelius Fest. With your wealth of Sibelian knowledge, we in the forum would love to hear from you more often. I certainly agree with you that The Bard, Oceanides and 4th Symphony are amongst his greatest works and Nightride and Sunrise is my favourite of the tone poems and certainly up with the greats.
As regards my modest little poem, I was really inspired at the time to write it and somethings can only be done once. I do wish that other Sibelians would send in six questions to the Quiz, how about it you forum regulars!--kp

As for the Lahti Festival, I would love to go to it as my first excursion out of the U.S., but it's a rather wild fantasy to be sure. I bet 2015 will have quite the festival, eh?

My God...I HAVE to make it to one of those one day. As a devoted Sibelian, I feel it is my spiritual duty.

Must be great to hear so much LIVE Sibelius all at once. I feel ashamed to admit I have only heard three live Sibelius pieces: The Second, The Fith and the Karelia Suite. What I wouldn;t give to hear more in a live concert...in Finland, no less!

Go for it, friends! Imagine one of the world's finest chefs opening his restaurant for a special three-and-a-half day bonanza with all your favourite food on the menu.

(And then go to the Teerenpeli pub and wash it down with some of their home-produced beer.)

Ah Andrew, you make it all sound so...delicious!!!

I wish Sibelius was more popular here in southern CA. With all of our local orchestras, Mahler seems to be programmed more. Even with Salonen's last season with the LA Phil, he has programmed no Sibelius. I will have to wait till next year to see what the offerings will be.

By the way, I will be going to LA in Jan. to see Salonen condut the Rite of Spring. Never seen this one live...should be good!

Speaking of Salonen, I honestly think that many conductors don't want to be seen as being identifyed completely with one particular composer. So in his case Salonen will drop Sibelius from time to time. A few year ago Osmo Vanska did Mahler 5 at the Proms in London. Although I personally hold no brief for Mahler, it was refreshing to hear the Finnish maestro wearing a different shirt.-kp

True, just because a conductor is Finnish, he (or she) should not feel obligated to conduct tons of Finnish music just because...thesame way Czech conductors should not go overboard with Dvorak or Smetana (right, Kurki?). But, seeing as that it's Salonen's last season...it is momentous...so paying at least one homage to Sibelius seems in order. I'd think Finns and Sibelius fans would expect it of him. Plus, I want to hear some Sibelius!

Anyhow, I've never seen Salonen in person, so I'mlooking forward to the who experience. Just not looking forward to having to put up with LA traffic to get there!

Tapkaara wrote:

thesame way Czech conductors should not go overboard with Dvorak or Smetana (right, Kurki?).

Very true. That said, at this point in my career I would be thrilled to be identified internationally with Dvořák. Later on though, say in my 50's, I wouldn't want to be pigeon-holed in that way.

Miranda, few weeks ago I had an opportunity to feel that orchestra from inside in Prokofjev symph 7. (thanks to ice hockey activity in orchestra) The hall really gives good feedfack for a player.

Very nice to see so much sudden activity on this topic. Thanks Harri for contributing to our pleasure. And very charming, Kullervopete(r), that you should refer above to my 'wealth'(?) of Sibelian knowledge. Unfortunately it would be fraudulent of me to claim such a thing. Certainly I read a fair amount about Sibelius's life and work when preparing The Seven Symphonies, and I wallowed in an orgy of his music — including quite a lot of pieces that I hadn't listened to before. But my own knowledge of Sibelius is miniscule compared to that of the numerous genuine experts my novel happily brought me into contact with later: Veijo Murtomäki, Timo Virtanen, our own Andrew B, and quite a few others.
Kullervopete also kindly invited me to join the discussion more often. I suppose I'm not especially an internet person. I use Google for research when writing, and Amazon.co.uk for ordering books and music to Finland and, naturally, as a channel for emailing… but not for very much else.
In any case, I'm afraid I've been a vile traitor to the cause over the last two or three years. I am now obliged to confess that I've just completed a new novel in which the music focus is not our beloved Sibelius, but Sir Edward Elgar. Yes, I know it's despicable behaviour… but I've had a great deal of fun exploring yet another composer's life and oeuvre.
It's difficult and perhaps pointless to compare two such disparate creators as Elgar and Sibelius. They're as dissimilar as coffee and tea. [Please don't ask me which one is which!] Our relative response to them is likely to be a very personal matter. All I can say is that, though I have a genuine soft spot for Elgar's musical personality, it is still (and probably always will be) Sibelius's greatest music that touches me on the deepest level of all.

Miranda Lewis wrote:

I read a fair amount about Sibelius's life and work when preparing The Seven Symphonies, and I wallowed in an orgy of his music.

A hearty "Welcome Back" to Miranda!

See the above quote enshrined in the "Quotes of the Moment" thread (

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Miranda, please don't apologise for your interest in Elgar! We on the forum embrace a wide range of music in our discussions. In fact Elgars 'Enigma Variations' is one of my choices in the topic 'Music to die for' [General Discussion section] I would love to see your choice of music.

You know both Elgar and Sibelius wrote some highly attracive light music, I'm thinking of pieces such as Elgars 'Salut d' amour' or Sibelius's 'Romance' in C major for strings- the list goes on.

Sibelius in fact once shared a concert with Elgar at the Birmingham Festival, England in 1912. Sibelius presented his Fourth Symphony and Elgar his Cantata 'The Music makers'. I don't think that they actually met at this time. Its interesting that around 1933-34 Elgar visited the ailing composer Frederick Delius and took with him a recording of Sibelius's Fifth Symphony.--kp

Tapkaara wrote:

With all of our local orchestras, Mahler seems to be programmed more

Not unusual, I think... a colleague Down Under (who will sign up to the Forum one day, I'm sure) is constantly lamenting that his local orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, overplays the Mahler and Richard Strauss so much that it is known locally as the Mahler Strauss Orchestra. He is doing his best to pump up the Sibelian content, though, and won't be content with the occasional performance of the Second Symphony.

It's official...I have bought my plane tickets and made hotel reservations...I will be attending the Sibelius Festival in Lahti this year.

Yeah, I really am...and I cannot wait..!

Tapkaara wrote:

It's official...I have bought my plane tickets and made hotel reservations...I will be attending the Sibelius Festival in Lahti this year. Yeah, I really am...and I cannot wait..!

AH! You lucky person...

It's crazy how expensive international tickets are getting to be... I was nominated to go on this tour thing of Europe with other musicians from the area... $4,000. Nosirree.

I don't know if I'll get to London next year either... I'll try.