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I made my first visit to Finland in 1997, making sure that I visited the masters birthplace at Haemeenlinna and of course the Villa Ainola, for me heaven on earth. I returned again in 2005 for the Lahti Sibelius Festival and again made my pilgrimage to Ainola and also Vaania, the summer home of the young Sibelius.
My question is : Do you think that it is necessary to have visited Finland in order to fully appreciate Sibelius's music. I also include conductors.--kp

No, it is not necesary to have been to Finland to fully appreciate Sibelius's music.

I've never been to Finland, bu I've always wanted to go. Maybe in the next few years.

I'm sure going to Finland certainly cannot hurt the cause, however. I imagine standing at Ainola must be a very moving experience: to see the sights, hear the sounds and smell the smells of Sibelius's nature. I'm sure one gets a very enhanced idea of the very natural influences that were so important in Sibbe's art.

Notwithstanding, I personally have such a close connection to this man and this music...even though I have never set foot on his native soil.

Not necessary, no - but a visit can, if carefully planned, massively enhance one's appreciation of the music and help to give it a cultural context. A day or two in an international-grade hotel in Helsinki won't really do the trick, though.
This applies to listeners and conductors alike.

And a visit to Ainola is very highly recommended too!

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I suppose for us Sibelians visiting Ainola is on a par to seeing an holy shrine. Here is my account of my first visit to Ainola in 1997 as featured in UK Sibelius Society Newsletter [1999]

We entered the gates and began to follow the track beneath tall trees. Birdsong filled the air and I began to be aware of a most extraordinary atmosphere.
June 1997, Ainola near Jarvenpaa. It was here that I had come in pilgrimage with my wife Gwynneth to see and experience the home of Jean and Aino Sibelius.
This large wooden villa was designed by Lars Sonck, one of the best architects in Finland. It was begun in 1903, and the Sibelius family moved into its new house on 24th September 1904.
As we strode up the steps of the veranda I could see Sibelius waving goodbye to his guests. We entered the large drawing room, which has been kept just as it was when the family was living there. We saw the comfortable library and I noticed the demonic watercolour by Akseli Gallen-Kallela of the young Sibelius which has always been a favourite of mine. We viewed the working room of Sibelius, where so many great works of music saw the light of day. There were the master's hat and stick, and a photo of Aino was on the desk.
We also looked round the kitchen and I could almost hear the two maids Helmi Vainikainen and Aino Kari busy making coffee.
Later, following a path in the gardens again, we came upon a shadier area. For some strange reason, bits of Sibelius's cantata Jordens sang [Song of the Earth] opus 93, kept running through my mind when suddenly we were face-to-face with the gravestone of Jean and Aino Sibelius.

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For me these were moments of quiet reflection on the man and his music-music of such extraordinary power and beauty.
We left Finland with treasured memories of Helsinki [Daughter of the Baltic] and of Hameenlinna, home of the young Sibelius and now a facinating museum. Other memories include cruising along Lake Paijanne, one of the biggest Lakes in Finland, and the thrill as we returned from St Petersburg and crossed over the border to the glorious strains of the Karelia Suite-but above all, my time spent at Ainola. I returned from Finland with the masters music even more firmly embedded in my soul.--kp

A very nice account, Pete. I, too, have made such a pilgrimage to haunts and homes of favorite artists. I don't see them so much as "holy shrines"; one usually comes away merely with a sense of the artist's humanness and spiritual closeness to oneself, which in my opinion is a "good" thing.

This thread exposes my plight quite squarely.

I have never been to Finland and truly feel that I am missing something. It is a dream of mine to see the Sibelian sights and "make the pilgrimage", as kullervopete puts it, but unfortunately I simply haven't had the time or money to do it yet.

But one day...

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Hear is a shot of the Sauna which I believe was designed by Aino Sibelius.

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Here we are inside. It seems that Sibelius used it every day, even in the depth of winter!--kp

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In 2005 I stood with my wife and fellow UK Sibelius Society member, conductor Stephen Williams and his wife. We were gazing at Sibelius's piano when we noticed a powerful painting hanging up over the piano.

'A prayer to God' by Oscar Parviainen. It shows a mother leaning over the bed of a dying child with the figure of 'Death' hovering over them.

I wondered if this picture had any connection to Valse triste. I have since learned that in a 1924 interview, Sibelius refered to the picture as 'Valse triste'.--kp

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Good point.

I quote from Markku Hartikainen's article 'PARVIAINEN AND SIBELIUS – ‘MOOD PEOPLE' (Lahti Sibelius Festival Book 2005) (my own translation) - NB the 'Prayer to God' symbology is from the unfinished 'Marjatta' oratorio [posts passim]:

'There are many inconsistencies associated with Parviainen’s painting. On the back the artist wrote the words ‘Prayer to God’, but at Ainola it was known as The Death of a Child. Sibelius gave an interview when he went to conduct his Seventh Symphony in Copenhagen in 1924, and mentioned that Parviainen’s painting of his Valse triste hung on the wall at Ainola, behind the piano. This reference is remarkable because Sibelius concealed a fragment of his Valse triste in the closing bars of the Seventh Symphony. Perhaps the explanation has something to do with the dead child. If Parviainen had painted Marjatta by the bedside of the dead Jesus, the child would have been a boy. In fact, however, he painted a girl. Knowing of his friend’s family tragedy, Parviainen must surely have taken as his subject the death of Sibelius’s third daughter Kirsti, who had died of typhoid at the age of just fifteen months. In his picture Parviainen evidently depicted Aino Sibelius, worn out from weeks of nursing, slumped by the body of her daughter.'

© Markku Hartikainen 2005

Many thanks Andrew B.

In Finnish Folklore, a white butterfly is a symbol of death. On 20th September 1957, Sir Malcolm Sargent was conducting the masters Fifth Symphony in Helsinki and Stephen Williams relates that due to the warm day a number of windows were opened and it is claimed that a white butterfly fluttered into the hall. Stephen wonders if this could have been the moment that Jean Sibelius passed away.

If you look closely at Parviainen's painting 'A Prayer to God' you may see the unmistakable outline of a white butterfly in the top left corner.--kp

What a haunting painting...certainly not the usual type of art hanging in most people's houses! But for the Sibelius family, it had special meaning, so I guess it made sense to them to have it on display. I'd think, having it up like that would act as a constant reminder and make it hard to "move on" from their young daughter's death.

By the way, I am going to make a good effort to make it to Finland for the first time this summer...I want to visit Ainola like crazy.

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Some of Sibelius's large book collection, also one can see a plaster figure of the masters youngest daughter Heidi.

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In 1935 the Nursery was converted into a Library to house Sibelius's ever growing collection. Sibelius liked to show his guests a Japanese edition of the Kalevala which contained a dedication by the Japanese translator Kokita Morimoto.--kp

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Life at Ainola included both the good and the bad of country living. In the early days the house had neither central heating nor electricity, depending instead on wood stoves for warmth and oil lamps and candles for light. Water had to be drawn from the well outside

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The family went to the train by horse-drawn carriage or, in the wintertime, by sledge.--kp

Can anyone verify...

I once read that Sibelius never had running water installed because he was afraid the sound of the pipes would distract him from writing music. Is this true?

Apparently Sibelius banned clocks and running water.

As I understand it, Sibelius was indeed very sensitive to sounds and the family had to observe a strict silence when the master was working.

Although the house was wired for electric light in 1918, electric heating and running water were not installed until 1960, three years after Sibelius's death.-kp

Tadaa! Post number 100!

I don`t now find where I read it, but I think that freemasons offered to build water pipes but he didn`t want the construction work to disturb.

No running water? Wow, the man was certainly devoted to his art.

I guess pipes in thos days were noisy...?

Well, in countryside waterpipes were maybe not so common in every house in those days...I was 14 (1978) when we built those facilities... we also had a separate sauna outside.

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Here's Sibelius being presented with a state of the art Gramophone from Phillips Electronics in 1951.

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In the cabinet at the back of the table you can see a small record player and the Phillips Radio-Gram'

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In this picture we see conductor Sir Thomas Beecham with Sibelius.

Here is what Beecham had to say about Sib and his gramophone.

'All my life when I've made gramophone records and I have listened to the tests I have annoyed those around me by turning up the knob so the music is played Fortisimo. In my case its a nescessity, I want to hear every note played. I was delighted on seeing Sibelius last year and taking some records of mine of his music. He eagerly grasped them, put them on the gramophone and turned the knob up twice as loud as I had ever done. Their where about 12 or 15 people in his large Sitting room, after about three minutes I had the sense of a vacuum and looking round I found that the whole lot had vanished into the garden and even there were holding their hands over their ears, but Sibelius was hanging over the machine itself and trying to get more and more tone out of it. I said you have the same kind of feeling about that sort of thing that I do, he said oh yes I want to hear everything, I want to hear every little note, every semi-quaver. I said well you are certainly hearing it alright'.--kp

This is great. I am known for listening to my music very loud, too. I don't like listening to music so much as I like to EXPERIENCE it, and listening to it loud is the way to go.

Glad Sibbe and I have that in common!