The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

The Five Pieces (in French: Cinq Morceaux), Op. 75, is a collection of compositions for piano written in 1914 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The Five Pieces, however, is more commonly referred to by its informal nickname The Trees due to the fact that the descriptive titles of the five pieces share a thematic link.

In music, Op. 69 stands for Opus number 69. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Cello Sonata No. 3 Britten – Cantata misericordium Chopin – Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69, No. 1 Chopin – Waltz in B minor, Op. 69, No. 2 Dvořák – The Spectre's Bride Elgar – The Music Makers Klebe – Ein wahrer Held Schumann – Romanzen volume I (6 partsongs for women's voices) Shostakovich – Children's Notebook Sibelius – Two Serenades, concertante works for violin and orchestra (1912–1913) Tchaikovsky – Iolanta

The Ten Pieces (Finnish: Kymmenen kappaletta; in German: Zehn Stücke), Op. 24, is a collection of compositions for piano written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius around the turn of the twentieth century, variously from 1895 to 1903. The most famous piece of the set is by far No. 9, the Romance in D-flat major.

The Scènes historiques I (literal English translation: Historical Scenes I), Op. 25, is a three-movement concert suite for orchestra written in 1911 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who excerpted and arranged tableaux Nos. 1, 4, and 3 from 1899's Music for the Press Celebrations Days (JS 137). The suite premiered on 11 October 1912 at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society.

The Scènes historiques II (literal English translation: Historical Scenes II), Op. 66, is a three-movement concert suite for orchestra written in 1912 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The suite premiered on 29 March 1912 at the University Hall in Helsinki, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society.

Kullervo (sometimes referred to as the Kullervo Symphony), Op. 7, is a five-movement symphonic work for soprano, baritone, male choir, and orchestra written from 1891 to 1892 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Movements I, II, and IV are instrumental, whereas III and V feature sung text from Runos XXXV–VI of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic. The piece tells the story of the tragic hero Kullervo, with each movement depicting an episode from his ill-fated life: first, an introduction that establishes the psychology of the titular character; second, a haunting "lullaby with variations" that portrays his unhappy childhood; third, a dramatic dialogue between soloists and chorus in which the hero unknowingly seduces his long-lost sister; fourth, a lively scherzo in which Kullervo seeks redemption on the battlefield; and fifth, a funereal choral finale in which he returns to the spot of his incestuous crime and, guilt-ridden, takes his life by falling on his sword. The piece premiered on 28 April 1892 in Helsinki with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Association and an amateur choir; the baritone Abraham Ojanperä and the mezzo-soprano Emmy Achté sang the parts of Kullervo and his sister, respectively. The premiere was a resounding success—indeed, the definitive breakthrough of Sibelius's nascent career and the moment at which orchestral music became his chosen medium. The critics praised the confidence and inventiveness of his writing and heralded Kullervo as the dawn of art music that was distinctly Finnish. Sibelius's triumph, however, was due in part to extra-musical considerations: by setting the Finnish-language Kalevala and evoking—but not directly quoting—the melody and rhythm of rune singing, he had given voice to the political struggle for Finland's independence from Imperial Russia. After four additional performances—and increasingly tepid reviews—Sibelius withdrew Kullervo in March 1893, saying he wanted to revise it. He never did, and as his idiom evolved beyond national romanticism, he suppressed the work. (However, individual movements were played a few times during his lifetime, most notably the third on 1 March 1935 for the Kalevala's centenary.) Kullervo would not receive its next complete performance until 12 June 1958, nine months after Sibelius's death, when his son-in-law Jussi Jalas resurrected it for a recorded, private concert in Helsinki. Kullervo eschews obvious categorization, in part because of Sibelius's indecision. At the premiere, program and score each listed the piece as a symphonic poem; nevertheless, Sibelius referred to Kullervo as a symphony both while composing the piece and again in retirement when reflecting on his career. Today, many commentators prefer to view Kullervo as a choral symphony, due to its deployment of sonata form in the first movement, its thematic unity, and the presence of recurring material across movements. Such a perspective conceptualizes Kullervo as Sibelius's "Symphony No. 0" and thereby expands his completed contributions to the symphonic canon from seven to eight. Kullervo has been recorded many times, with Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra having made the world premiere studio recording in 1970. A typical performance lasts about 73 minutes, making it the longest composition in Sibelius's œuvre.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Jean Sibelius (; Finland Swedish: [ˈʃɑːn siˈbeːliʉs] ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). His other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over a hundred songs for voice and piano; incidental music for numerous plays; the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower; chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last 30 years—a retirement commonly referred to as the "silence of Järvenpää" (the location of his home). Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works, while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. Although his early retirement has perplexed scholars, Sibelius was clear about its cause — he simply felt he had written enough. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a flag flying day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in Helsinki, the Finnish capital.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Belshazzar's Feast (Swedish: Belsazars gästabud), JS 48, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius to a play of the same name by the journalist, poet and playwright Hjalmar Fredrik Eugen Procopé (1868−1927).

Kuolema (Finnish: “Death”), JS 113, is incidental music for orchestra by Jean Sibelius for a 1903 play of that title by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt, structured in six movements and originally scored for string orchestra, bass drum and a bell. He conducted the first performance at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki on 2 December 1903. He drew individual works from the score and revised them as: Op. 44 no. 1 Valse triste, completed in 1904 Op. 44 no. 2 Scene with Cranes, completed in 1906 For a 1911 production of the play, he added two new movements: Op. 62a Canzonetta (Rondino der Liebenden) for string orchestra, first version in 1906, final version in 1911 Op. 62b Valse romantique (Waltz intermezzo), completed in 1911

Cassazione, Op. 6, is a single-movement concert piece for orchestra written in 1904 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Its title refers to the cassation, a genre similar to the serenade, that was popular in the eighteenth century. Sibelius originally structured the work in five "episodes," although upon revision in 1905 he reduced this to four. Although his opus numbers were already in the forties, he assigned the unused number Op. 6 to this work, implying an earlier composition date.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

En saga (in Finnish: Satu; occasionally translated to English as, variously, A Fairy Tale, A Saga, or A Legend), Op. 9, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written from 1891 to 1892 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which likely began as a septet or octet for flute, clarinet, and string ensemble before evolving into an orchestral tone poem, premiered on 16 February 1893 in Helsinki with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Association. A decade later in 1902, Sibelius substantially revised En saga in response to an invitation from Ferruccio Busoni to conduct the piece in Berlin. It thus stands alongside The Lemminkäinen Suite (Op. 22), the Violin Concerto (Op. 47), The Oceanides (Op. 73), and the Fifth Symphony (Op. 82) as one of the most overhauled works in his œuvre. The Berlin concert, which occurred a fortnight after Robert Kajanus had premiered the revised version in Helsinki on 2 November, finally brought Sibelius the German breakthrough he had long desired. En saga is without program or literary source. Nevertheless, the adventurous, evocative character of the music has encouraged many listeners to offer their own interpretations, among them a fantasy landscape (such as that by the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela), a hunting expedition, a bard's storytelling, and the essence of Finnish people. Sibelius routinely declined to state a program, although in the 1930s, he conceded that, if one must find an inspiration, the tone poem owed its nature not to The Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, but rather to Iceland's Eddas. By the 1940s, however, Sibelius had reverted to his previous position, describing the work instead as "the expression of a certain state of mind"—one with an unspecified, "painful" autobiographical component—for which "all literary interpretations [were therefore] totally alien". Critics have largely praised En saga as a masterpiece of "astonishing power and originality" that, stylistically, exhibits Sibelius's "personal brand of musical primitivism". Moreover, the revised version of the tone poem is often described as being of superior craftsmanship relative to the youthful rawness of its predecessor. The first (and to date only) recording of the original version was made in 1995 by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. A typical performance of the final version of the piece lasts about 18 minutes, some 4 minutes fewer than its predecessor.

Everyman (in Finnish: Jokamies; in German: Jedermann), Op. 83, is a theatre score—comprising 16 numbers—for soloists, mixed choir, orchestra, piano, and organ by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; he wrote the music in 1916 to accompany a Finnish-language production of the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1911 play of the same name. The play premiered on 5 November 1916 at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki, with Robert Kajanus conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; the theatre director was Jalmari Lahdensuo.

Finlandia, Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7+1⁄2 and 9 minutes.

Finlandia, Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7+1⁄2 and 9 minutes.

The Impromptu, Op. 19, is a single-movement work for female choir and orchestra written in 1902 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which is a setting of the Swedish poet Viktor Rydberg's poem Unge hellener (Young Hellenics), premiered in Helsinki on 8 March 1902, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society and an amateur choir. The Impromptu was the middle item a program that also included two other first performances: the Overture in A minor (JS 144), which served as the opener; and the Second Symphony (Op. 43). Sibelius extensively revised the Impromptu in the spring of 1910, reducing the instrumentation and altering both the beginning and ending of the piece, the former of which now incorporated a second Rydberg poem, Bacchospräster (The Priests of Bacchus). This version of the Impromptu received its premiere in Helsinki on 29 March 1912, with Sibelius conducting the Philharmonic Society; "Nuori Laulu" and the Arbetets vänner female choir sang the choral part.

In music, Op. 59 stands for Opus number 59. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – String Quartets Nos. 7–9, Op. 59 – Rasumovsky Chopin – Mazurkas, Op. 59 Dvořák – Legends Elgar – Oh, soft was the song, Was it some Golden Star?, and Twilight Mendelssohn – Sechs Lieder, Op. 59 Nielsen – Tre Klaverstykker Schubert – Du bist die Ruh' Schumann – 4 Gesänge Scriabin – Prelude, Op. 59, No. 2 Sibelius – In memoriam, funeral march for orchestra (1909, revised 1910) Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier Szymanowski – Litany to the Virgin Mary

Karelia Suite, Op. 11 is a subset of pieces from the longer Karelia Music (named after the region of Karelia) written by Jean Sibelius in 1893 for the Viipuri Students' Association and premiered, with Sibelius conducting, at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, on 23 November of that year. Sibelius first conducted the shorter Suite ten days later; it remains one of his most popular works. Karelia Music was written in the beginning of Sibelius's compositional career, and the complete Music consists of an Overture, 8 Tableaux, and 2 Intermezzi; it runs for about 44 minutes, whereas the Suite lasts about 12 minutes. The rough-hewn character of the Music was deliberate – the aesthetic intention was not to dazzle with technique but to capture the quality of naive, folk-based authenticity. Historical comments have noted the nationalistic character of the music.

Karelia Suite, Op. 11 is a subset of pieces from the longer Karelia Music (named after the region of Karelia) written by Jean Sibelius in 1893 for the Viipuri Students' Association and premiered, with Sibelius conducting, at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, on 23 November of that year. Sibelius first conducted the shorter Suite ten days later; it remains one of his most popular works. Karelia Music was written in the beginning of Sibelius's compositional career, and the complete Music consists of an Overture, 8 Tableaux, and 2 Intermezzi; it runs for about 44 minutes, whereas the Suite lasts about 12 minutes. The rough-hewn character of the Music was deliberate – the aesthetic intention was not to dazzle with technique but to capture the quality of naive, folk-based authenticity. Historical comments have noted the nationalistic character of the music.

Jean Sibelius (; Finland Swedish: [ˈʃɑːn siˈbeːliʉs] ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). His other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over a hundred songs for voice and piano; incidental music for numerous plays; the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower; chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last 30 years—a retirement commonly referred to as the "silence of Järvenpää" (the location of his home). Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works, while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. Although his early retirement has perplexed scholars, Sibelius was clear about its cause — he simply felt he had written enough. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a flag flying day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in Helsinki, the Finnish capital.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

King Christian II (Swedish: Kung Kristian II), Op. 27, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius for the Scandinavian historical play of the same name, written by his friend Adolf Paul. The original play deals with the love of King Christian II, ruler of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, for a Dutch girl, Dyvecke, a commoner. Sibelius composed in 1898 seven movements. He conducted the first performance of the first four parts the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki on 24 February 1898. In the following summer, he composed three more movements, Nocturne, Serenade and Ballad. The Nocturne was an interlude between the first act and the second. The position of the serenade changed. The ballad is a dramatic piece about the Stockholm Bloodbath (1520). This movement shows already traits of the later First Symphony. The stage music consists of the following numbers: Elegia Musette Menuetto Sången om korsspindeln Nocturne Serenade Ballade. Sibelius derived from the incidental music a suite of five movements. A complete performance of the suite takes about 25 minutes. It was first performed in December 1898, conducted by Robert Kajanus. Sibelius wrote in a letter: “The music sounded excellent and the tempi seem to be right. I think this is the first time that I have managed to make something complete.” The suite was given the British premiere was given on 26 October 1901 at the Promenade Concerts, conducted by Henry Wood at Queen's Hall.

Kullervo (sometimes referred to as the Kullervo Symphony), Op. 7, is a five-movement symphonic work for soprano, baritone, male choir, and orchestra written from 1891 to 1892 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Movements I, II, and IV are instrumental, whereas III and V feature sung text from Runos XXXV–VI of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic. The piece tells the story of the tragic hero Kullervo, with each movement depicting an episode from his ill-fated life: first, an introduction that establishes the psychology of the titular character; second, a haunting "lullaby with variations" that portrays his unhappy childhood; third, a dramatic dialogue between soloists and chorus in which the hero unknowingly seduces his long-lost sister; fourth, a lively scherzo in which Kullervo seeks redemption on the battlefield; and fifth, a funereal choral finale in which he returns to the spot of his incestuous crime and, guilt-ridden, takes his life by falling on his sword. The piece premiered on 28 April 1892 in Helsinki with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Association and an amateur choir; the baritone Abraham Ojanperä and the mezzo-soprano Emmy Achté sang the parts of Kullervo and his sister, respectively. The premiere was a resounding success—indeed, the definitive breakthrough of Sibelius's nascent career and the moment at which orchestral music became his chosen medium. The critics praised the confidence and inventiveness of his writing and heralded Kullervo as the dawn of art music that was distinctly Finnish. Sibelius's triumph, however, was due in part to extra-musical considerations: by setting the Finnish-language Kalevala and evoking—but not directly quoting—the melody and rhythm of rune singing, he had given voice to the political struggle for Finland's independence from Imperial Russia. After four additional performances—and increasingly tepid reviews—Sibelius withdrew Kullervo in March 1893, saying he wanted to revise it. He never did, and as his idiom evolved beyond national romanticism, he suppressed the work. (However, individual movements were played a few times during his lifetime, most notably the third on 1 March 1935 for the Kalevala's centenary.) Kullervo would not receive its next complete performance until 12 June 1958, nine months after Sibelius's death, when his son-in-law Jussi Jalas resurrected it for a recorded, private concert in Helsinki. Kullervo eschews obvious categorization, in part because of Sibelius's indecision. At the premiere, program and score each listed the piece as a symphonic poem; nevertheless, Sibelius referred to Kullervo as a symphony both while composing the piece and again in retirement when reflecting on his career. Today, many commentators prefer to view Kullervo as a choral symphony, due to its deployment of sonata form in the first movement, its thematic unity, and the presence of recurring material across movements. Such a perspective conceptualizes Kullervo as Sibelius's "Symphony No. 0" and thereby expands his completed contributions to the symphonic canon from seven to eight. Kullervo has been recorded many times, with Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra having made the world premiere studio recording in 1970. A typical performance lasts about 73 minutes, making it the longest composition in Sibelius's œuvre.

In music, Op. 44 stands for Opus number 44. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Variations on an original theme in E-flat major Britten – Spring Symphony Bruch – Violin Concerto No. 2 Busoni – Indian Fantasy Chopin – Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44 Danzi – Horn Sonata No. 2 Dvořák – Serenade for Wind Instruments Elgar – Coronation Ode Ginastera – Popol Vuh Goehr – Behold the Sun Górecki – Miserere Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 3 Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 4 Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 5 Nielsen – String Quartet No. 4 Oswald – Cello Sonata No. 2 Prokofiev – Symphony No. 3 Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 3 Saint-Saëns – Piano Concerto No. 4 Schumann – Piano Quintet Sibelius – Valse triste, concert piece for orchestra from the theatre score Kuolema (1903, revised 1904) Strauss – Notturno Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 2

Kuolema (Finnish: “Death”), JS 113, is incidental music for orchestra by Jean Sibelius for a 1903 play of that title by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt, structured in six movements and originally scored for string orchestra, bass drum and a bell. He conducted the first performance at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki on 2 December 1903. He drew individual works from the score and revised them as: Op. 44 no. 1 Valse triste, completed in 1904 Op. 44 no. 2 Scene with Cranes, completed in 1906 For a 1911 production of the play, he added two new movements: Op. 62a Canzonetta (Rondino der Liebenden) for string orchestra, first version in 1906, final version in 1911 Op. 62b Valse romantique (Waltz intermezzo), completed in 1911

The Lemminkäinen Suite, or more correctly Four Legends from the Kalevala, Op. 22, is a sequence of four tone poems for orchestra completed in 1896 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The work was conceived as Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat), an opera with a mythological setting, before taking its form as a suite. There is a narrative thread: the exploits are followed of the heroic character Lemminkäinen from the Kalevala, which is a collection of folkloric, mythic, epic poetry. The second tone poem, The Swan of Tuonela, is popular as a standalone orchestral work.

Luonnotar (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈluo̯nːotɑr]), Op. 70, is a single-movement tone poem for soprano and orchestra written in 1913 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece is a setting of Runo I (lines 111–242, freely adapted) of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, which tells the legend of how the goddess Luonnotar (the female spirit of nature) created the Earth. Luonnotar premiered on 10 September 1913 at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, England, with Herbert Brewer conducting the festival orchestra; the soloist was the Finnish operatic diva (and frequent Sibelius collaborator) Aino Ackté, the tone poem's dedicatee. A few months later on 12 January 1914, Ackté gave Luonnotar its Finnish premiere, with Georg Schnéevoigt conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Björneborgarnas marsch (Finnish: Porilaisten marssi; Estonian: Porilaste marss; 'March of the Björneborgers' or 'March of the Pori Regiment') is a Swedish military march from the 18th century. Today, it is mainly performed in Finland and Estonia and has served as the honorary march of the Finnish Defence Forces since 1918 and is the Estonian Defence Forces' official honorary march.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Nightride and Sunrise (in Finnish: Öinen ratsastus ja auringonnousu; in German: Nächtlicher Ritt und Sonnenaufgang), Op. 55, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1908 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The work represents a subjective, spiritual experience of nature by "an ordinary man." It unfolds in three contrasting parts: a galloping section whose length and dogged determination produce one of Sibelius's strangest utterances; a brief hymnic transition in the strings; and an exquisite Northern sunrise whose first rays emerge in the horns. Although poorly received by audiences initially, the work has gained importance over time. Its repetitive rhythmic patterns and gradual development of musical ideas are characteristics that foreshadow minimalism. The composition is known for expression, artful construction, and psychological weight. The subdued finale was called one of the most magical moments in all of 20th-century music by the American composer Jonathan Blumhofer.

The Overture in A minor, JS 144, is a single-movement work for orchestra written in 1902 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece premiered in Helsinki on 8 March 1902, the with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society. The overture led a program that evening also included two other first performances: the Second Symphony (Op. 43) and the Impromptu for female choir and orchestra (Op. 19; revised in 1910).

Jean Sibelius (; Finland Swedish: [ˈʃɑːn siˈbeːliʉs] ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). His other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over a hundred songs for voice and piano; incidental music for numerous plays; the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower; chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last 30 years—a retirement commonly referred to as the "silence of Järvenpää" (the location of his home). Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works, while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. Although his early retirement has perplexed scholars, Sibelius was clear about its cause — he simply felt he had written enough. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a flag flying day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in Helsinki, the Finnish capital.

Pan and Echo (in Swedish Pan och Echo; in Finnish: Pan ja Kaiku; subtitled "Dance intermezzo No. 3"), Op. 53, is tableau music for orchestra written in early 1906 by the Finnish composer by Jean Sibelius. The piece premiered in Helsinki on 24 March 1906, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society; the venue was the original location of the Hotelli Seurahuone (Helsinki City Hall since 1913). Though brief, Pan and Echo is, according to Sibelius's biographer Andrew Barnett, "poetic, full of feeling, and scored with great sensitivity".

Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas och Mélisande), JS 147, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius for Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 play Pelléas and Mélisande. Sibelius composed in 1905 ten parts, overtures to the five acts and five other movements. It was first performed at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki on 17 March 1905 to a translation by Bertel Gripenberg, conducted by the composer. Sibelius later slightly rearranged the music into a nine movement suite, published as Op. 46, which became one of his most popular concert works.

Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas och Mélisande), JS 147, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius for Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 play Pelléas and Mélisande. Sibelius composed in 1905 ten parts, overtures to the five acts and five other movements. It was first performed at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki on 17 March 1905 to a translation by Bertel Gripenberg, conducted by the composer. Sibelius later slightly rearranged the music into a nine movement suite, published as Op. 46, which became one of his most popular concert works.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Finlandia, Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7+1⁄2 and 9 minutes.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Rakastava (The Lover), Op. 14, is a suite by Jean Sibelius. He completed it in 1912, scored for string orchestra, percussion and triangle. He based it on his earlier composition of the same title, a song cycle of four movements for men's chorus a cappella completed in 1894. The works are based on a Finnish text in Book 1 of the Kanteletar.

Rakastava (The Lover), Op. 14, is a suite by Jean Sibelius. He completed it in 1912, scored for string orchestra, percussion and triangle. He based it on his earlier composition of the same title, a song cycle of four movements for men's chorus a cappella completed in 1894. The works are based on a Finnish text in Book 1 of the Kanteletar.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

Scaramouche, Op. 71, is a tragic ballet-pantomime in two acts—comprising 21 scenes—written from 1912 to 1913 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The project, which was a collaboration with the Danish playwright Poul Knudsen, caused Sibelius great anguish—primarily because he had not understood that, when signing the commissioning contract, he was committing himself to the composition of an hour-long, full-length score. Scaramouche premiered in Copenhagen on 12 May 1922 at the Royal Danish Theatre with Georg Høeberg conducting the Royal Danish Orchestra and Johannes Poulsen originating the title role; Sibelius was not in attendance. Despite the quality of its musical material—critics at the premiere, for example, praised Sibelius's nuanced score for its sense of drama, noting that "it bears the imprint of genius"—the piece, due to the weakness of Knudsen's scenario, never established itself in the repertory and is rarely performed today.

The Overture in E major and Ballet Scene (in French: Scène de ballet), respectively JS 145 and 163, are two single-movement works for orchestra written in 1891 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius while he was a postgraduate student studying in Vienna. The Overture received its premiere on 23 April 1891 in Helsinki with the Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Association; five days later, Kajanus and his orchestra premiered Ballet Scene. Sibelius, who remained overseas, was unable to attend either concert. (Shortly after mailing the manuscripts to Finland, Sibelius was overcome with self-doubt and had written to Kajanus begging, to no avail, to have the pieces removed from the program.) The Overture and Ballet Scene are notable for two reasons. First, they are Sibelius's earliest compositions for orchestra (prior to them, he had mainly written chamber music, pieces for solo piano, and a few songs), which eventually became his chosen medium of artistic expression. Second, Sibelius had conceived of the two pieces as Movements I and II in a first symphony, although he abandoned this ambition in April 1891 and converted them into stand-alone concert items. The Overture and Ballet Scene thus demonstrate that, already in Vienna, Sibelius was thinking symphonically, and indeed, a year later in 1892, he premiered the five-movement choral symphony Kullervo (Op. 7). The Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Op. 39) arrived in 1899.

Spring Song (in Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

The Suite champêtre, Op. 98b, is a three-movement concert suite for string orchestra written in 1921 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

The Suite for Violin and String Orchestra in B major, JS 185 (Op. 117), is a concertante composition for violin and strings written in 1929 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece is in three movements, as follows: The individual movements bear English language titles, as Sibelius intended to sell the Suite to the New York-based publisher Carl Fischer. Fischer wrote to Sibelius on 5 October 1928: "However, we would be much more interested in works for piano, voice and piano, and violin and piano ... If we are permitted to make the suggestion, we would like to recommend that you write some characteristic numbers in the form of an orchestra suite ... We have every reason to believe that an orchestral suite from your pen ... would be a very commercial proposition". Sibelius wrote back to Fischer on 15 February 1929: "I take pleasure in handing to you herewith the following compositions: Op. 114 Piano-solo .../ Op. 115 Violin-solo with piano .../ Op. 116 Violin-solo with piano .../ Op. 117 [JS 185] Suite for Violin-solo with accomp. of strings". Fischer responded to Sibelius on 7 September 1929: "We must reluctantly inform you that in view of the extremely unfortunate constellation in the music publishing field in the United States, it seems to us inadvisable at the present time to publish compositions of the high standard which you have submitted to us. The market is very unfavorable for this class of music and we are compelled to return them to you with our regrets". As a result of Fischer's rejection, Sibelius wrote on the manuscript, "Sketch. To be reworked!"—although he never completed a revision. The Suite was never performed in Sibelius's lifetime. It received its world premiere in Lahti, Finland on 8 December 1990, the composer's sesquicentennial; the Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä conducted the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, with the Finnish violinist John Storgårds as soloist.

The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) wrote over 550 original works during his eight-decade artistic career. This began around 1875 with a short miniature for violin and cello called Water Droplets (Vattendroppar), and ended a few months before his death at age 91 with the orchestration of two earlier songs, "Kom nu hit, död" ("Come Away, Death") and "Kullervon valitus" ("Kullervo's Lament", excerpted from Movement III of Kullervo). However, the 1890s to the 1920s represent the key decades of Sibelius's production. After 1926's Tapiola, Sibelius completed no new works of significance, although he infamously labored until the late-1930s or the early-1940s on his Eighth Symphony, which he never completed and probably destroyed c. 1944. This thirty-year creative drought—commonly referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää", in reference to the sub-region of Helsinki in which the composer and his wife, Aino, resided—occurred at the height of his international and domestic celebrity. Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music. While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".

In music, Op. 54 stands for Opus number 54. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 22 Brahms – Schicksalslied Chopin – Scherzo No. 4 Grieg – Lyric Suite Haydn, J. - “Tost” Quartets, Set I, Op. 54 Larsson – Violin Concerto, for violin and orchestra (1952) Martin – Petite symphonie concertante Mendelssohn – Variations sérieuses Saint-Saëns – Requiem Schumann – Piano Concerto Scriabin – The Poem of Ecstasy Shostakovich – Symphony No. 6 Sibelius – Swanwhite (Svanevit), theatre score and suite (1908, arranged 1908) Strauss – Salome Tchaikovsky – Legend Vierne – Carillon de Westminster

In music, Op. 54 stands for Opus number 54. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 22 Brahms – Schicksalslied Chopin – Scherzo No. 4 Grieg – Lyric Suite Haydn, J. - “Tost” Quartets, Set I, Op. 54 Larsson – Violin Concerto, for violin and orchestra (1952) Martin – Petite symphonie concertante Mendelssohn – Variations sérieuses Saint-Saëns – Requiem Schumann – Piano Concerto Scriabin – The Poem of Ecstasy Shostakovich – Symphony No. 6 Sibelius – Swanwhite (Svanevit), theatre score and suite (1908, arranged 1908) Strauss – Salome Tchaikovsky – Legend Vierne – Carillon de Westminster

The Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39, is a four-movement work for orchestra written from 1898 to 1899 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The work was first performed on 26 April 1899 by the Helsinki Orchestral Society, conducted by the composer, in an original version which has not survived. After the premiere, Sibelius made some revisions, resulting in the version performed today. The revised version was completed in the spring and summer of 1900, and was first performed in Berlin by the Helsinki Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Kajanus on 1 July 1900, as the German premiere. The British premiere was on 13 October 1903 at the Promenade Concerts, conducted by Henry Wood. The symphony is characterized by its use of string and woodwind solos; the first movement opens with a long and discursive clarinet solo over a timpani roll; (this idea returns at the start of the fourth movement, fortissimo in the strings, with wind and brass chordal accompaniment), and subsequent movements include violin, viola, and cello solos. Most performances of the work last between 35 and 40 minutes. Many conductors choose to slacken the speeds suggested by Sibelius's metronome markings, particularly in the fast part (allegro energico) of the first movement. Because of this, many versions of the symphony are about 38–40 minutes long (the publishers suggest the duration is 40 minutes).

The Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43, is a four-movement work for orchestra written from 1901 to 1902 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He began writing the symphony in winter 1901 in Rapallo, Italy, shortly after the successful premiere of the popular Finlandia. Sibelius said, "My second symphony is a confession of the soul."

The Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52, is a three-movement work for orchestra written from 1904 to 1907 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Coming between the romantic intensity of Sibelius's first two symphonies and the more austere complexity of his later symphonies, it is a good-natured, triumphal, and deceptively simple-sounding piece. The symphony's first performance was given by the Helsinki Philharmonic Society, conducted by the composer, on 25 September 1907. In the same concert, his suite from the incidental music to Belshazzar's Feast, Op. 51, was also performed for the first time. It is dedicated to the British composer Granville Bantock, an early champion of his work in the UK. The first recording featured the Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus and the London Symphony Orchestra, for the His Master's Voice label in June 1932.

The Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63, is a four-movement work for orchestra written from 1909 to 1911 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was premiered in Helsinki on 3 April 1911 by the Philharmonia Society, with Sibelius conducting.

The Symphony No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 82, is a three-movement work for orchestra written from 1914 to 1915 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He revised it in 1916 and again from 1917 to 1919, at which point it reached its final form. The Finnish government commissioned Sibelius to write the symphony in honor of his 50th birthday, 8 December 1915, which had been declared a national holiday.

The Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104, is a four-movement work for orchestra written from 1914 to 1923 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Although the score does not contain a key attribution, the symphony is usually described as being in D minor; much of it is in fact in the (modern) Dorian mode, a scale that corresponds to a scale on the white keys on a piano starting on the note D. A typical performance lasts about 27 minutes. The composer called the work "cold spring water" in opposition to many contemporary "cocktails"—a reference to the modernist gestures in post-war music. The symphony was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, on 19 February 1923 and had other performances under his direction in the following months.

The Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105, is a single-movement work for orchestra written from 1914 to 1924 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The composition is notable for having only one movement, in contrast to the standard symphonic formula of four movements. It has been described as "completely original in form, subtle in its handling of tempo, individual in its treatment of key and wholly organic in growth" and "Sibelius's most remarkable compositional achievement". After Sibelius finished its composition on 2 March 1924, the work was premiered in Stockholm on 24 March as Fantasia sinfonica No. 1, a "symphonic fantasy". The composer was apparently undecided on what name to give the piece, and only granted it status as a symphony after some deliberation. For its publication in 1925, the score was titled "Symphony No. 7 (in one movement)".

Tapiola (literal English translation: "The Realm of Tapio"), Op. 112, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, written in 1926 on a commission from Walter Damrosch for the New York Symphony Society. Tapiola portrays Tapio, the animating forest spirit mentioned throughout the Kalevala. It was premiered by Damrosch on 26 December 1926.

The Bard (in Swedish: Barden), Op. 64, tone poem for orchestra written in 1913 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was first performed in Helsinki on 27 March 1913 by the Philharmonic Society Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself, but he revised it in 1914. The new version was first performed in Helsinki on 9 January 1916, again under the baton of the composer. In Britain, Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra recorded the tone poem in January 1936 for broadcast. The first public performance in the UK was given by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1938. The tone poem itself provides a profound, yet cryptic glimpse of an elegiac, poetic world: an initial, harp-led stillness and reflection are succeeded by elemental, eruptive surges and, finally, a sense of renunciation or maybe death.

The Dryad (in Finnish: Dryadi), Op. 45/1, is a tone poem for orchestra written in 1910 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He completed it between skiing trips. He conducted the first performance in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, on 8 October 1910, together with the premiere of In memoriam. He arranged it for piano in 1910 (Die Dryade). The piece has been regarded as one of the composer's "shortest and most original orchestral works", as an "impressionist miniature", proceeding from fragments to a "dance-like theme".

In music, Op. 73 stands for Opus number 73. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 5 Brahms – Symphony No. 2 Czerny – Variations on "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" Draeseke – Tod und Sieg des Herrn Krenek – Karl V Novák – May Symphony Schumann – Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 3 Sibelius – The Oceanides (Aallottaret), tone poem for orchestra (1914, revised 1914) Strauss – Frohsinns-Spenden Weber – Clarinet Concerto No. 1

The Tempest (Stormen), Op. 109, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius to Shakespeare's The Tempest. He composed it mainly in the late summer 1925, his last major work before his tone poem Tapiola. Sibelius derived two suites from the score. The music is said to display an astounding richness of imagination and inventive capacity, and is considered by some as one of Sibelius's greatest achievements. He represented individual characters through instrumentation choices: particularly admired was his use of harps and percussion to represent Prospero, said to capture the "resonant ambiguity of the character".

The Tempest (Stormen), Op. 109, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius to Shakespeare's The Tempest. He composed it mainly in the late summer 1925, his last major work before his tone poem Tapiola. Sibelius derived two suites from the score. The music is said to display an astounding richness of imagination and inventive capacity, and is considered by some as one of Sibelius's greatest achievements. He represented individual characters through instrumentation choices: particularly admired was his use of harps and percussion to represent Prospero, said to capture the "resonant ambiguity of the character".

The Tempest (Stormen), Op. 109, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius to Shakespeare's The Tempest. He composed it mainly in the late summer 1925, his last major work before his tone poem Tapiola. Sibelius derived two suites from the score. The music is said to display an astounding richness of imagination and inventive capacity, and is considered by some as one of Sibelius's greatest achievements. He represented individual characters through instrumentation choices: particularly admired was his use of harps and percussion to represent Prospero, said to capture the "resonant ambiguity of the character".

The Wood Nymph (Swedish: Skogsrået; subtitled ballade pour l'orchestre), Op. 15, is a programmatic tone poem for orchestra composed in 1894 and 1895 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The ballade, which premiered on 17 April 1895 in Helsinki, Finland, with Sibelius conducting, follows the Swedish writer Viktor Rydberg's 1882 poem of the same title, in which a young man, Björn, wanders into the forest and is seduced and driven to despair by a skogsrå, or wood nymph. Organizationally, the tone poem consists of four informal sections, each of which corresponds to one of the poem's four stanzas and evokes the mood of a particular episode: first, heroic vigor; second, frenetic activity; third, sensual love; and fourth, inconsolable grief. The Wood Nymph was performed three more times that decade, then, at the composer's request, once more in 1936. Never published, the ballade had been thought to be comparable to insubstantial works and juvenilia which Sibelius had suppressed until the Finnish musicologist Kari Kilpeläinen 'rediscovered' the manuscript in the University of Helsinki archives, "[catching] Finland, and the musical world, by surprise". Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra gave the ballade its modern-day 'premiere' on 9 February 1996. Although the score had been effectively 'lost' for sixty years, its thematic material had been known in abridged form via a melodrama for narrator, piano, two horns, and strings. Sibelius probably arranged the melodrama from the tone poem, although he claimed the opposite. Some critics, while admitting the beauty of the musical ideas, have faulted Sibelius for over-reliance on the source material's narrative and lack of the rigorously unified structure that characterized his later output, whereas others, such as Veijo Murtomäki, have hailed it as a "masterpiece" worthy of ranking amongst Sibelius's greatest orchestral works.

The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 of Jean Sibelius, originally composed in 1904 and revised in 1905, is the only concerto by Sibelius. It is symphonic in scope and included an extended cadenza for the soloist that takes on the role of the development section in the first movement.

Jean Sibelius (; Finland Swedish: [ˈʃɑːn siˈbeːliʉs] ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). His other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala; over a hundred songs for voice and piano; incidental music for numerous plays; the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower; chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926), and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last 30 years—a retirement commonly referred to as the "silence of Järvenpää" (the location of his home). Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works, while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. Although his early retirement has perplexed scholars, Sibelius was clear about its cause — he simply felt he had written enough. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a flag flying day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the Day of Finnish Music. In 2015, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in Helsinki, the Finnish capital.