[I seem to have lost the thread with general quotes about Sibelius and his music, where this probably belongs…]

Here's a nice quote from the composer (of sorts!) Kaihhosru Shapurji Sorabji - a great eccentric! It's really about Medtner but quite illuminating about Sibb as well:
‘Like Sibelius, Medtner does not flout current fashions, he does not even deliberately ignore them, but so intent going his own individual way is he that he is simply unconscious of their very existence... he has made for himself, by the sheer strength of his own personality, that impregnable inner shrine and retreat that only the finest spirits either dare or can inhabit’.

And the Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin said of Medtner - but might equally well have been speaking of Sibb!: ‘Medtner’s music astonishes and delights… you may fancy that you have heard the melody before… But where, when, from whom, in childhood, in a dream, in delirium? You will scratch your head and strain your memory in vain: you have not heard it anywhere: in human ears it sounds for the first time… And yet it is as though you had long been waiting for it – waiting because you “knew” it, not in sound, but in spirit. For the spiritual content of the melody is universal and primordial… it is as though age-long desires and strivings of our forebears were singing in us; or, as though the eternal melodies we had heard in heaven and preserved in this life as “strange and lovely yearnings” were remembered at last and sung again – chaste and simple.’

I think both quotes suite Sibelius well...

but who is Medtner??

Nikolai Medtner (1879/80–1951) - claimed by some to be a kind of 'thinking man's Rachmaninov'. Claimed by others to be 'Rachmaninov without the tunes.' They both wrote piano concertos, anyhow!

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Thanks Andrew for some very interesting quotes. I've just been looking up on Medtner who sounds a most facinating character. I came across another quote, this time from pianist Yevgeny Sudbin : 'One of Medtner's distinct traits is that not a single note appears superfluous. The notes [and there are some!] aren't simply there to create a certain mood or effect. They are fulfilling the sole purpose of serving thematic development and their interrelations at the most sophisticated level'.

I think this also could be applied to Sibelius.

Point of interest. Yesterday in the Piano music section I talked about Havard Gimse's Cd of Sibelius's piano music [volume one] on Naxos. I went out to praise the D flat major Romance from 'Ten pieces' opus 24. I've just seen a comment on this piece from Rob Barnett reviewing Annette Servadei's set of Sibelius's complete piano works. Rob Barnett remarks 'The Romance from opus 24 sets out its wares in grand style--casting admiring glances towards the Chopin and Medtner Ballades'. interesting...kp

Ps Quotes about Sibelius and his music can be found in the Biographical Discussion threads.

Andrew B wrote:

Nikolai Medtner (1879/80–1951) - claimed by some to be a kind of 'thinking man's Rachmaninov'. Claimed by others to be 'Rachmaninov without the tunes.' They both wrote piano concertos, anyhow! Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

A thinking man's Rachmaninov and Rachmaninov without tunes. What is it, then, that made him a thinking man's Rachmaninov? The lack of tunes?

I hope that's not the case. If it is, then it's that classic classical music snobbery that truly good music cannot ever have a good tune.