Me and My Sibelius

A new feature in which distinguished Sibelius interpreters give an insight into their experiences and attitudes to Sibelius and his music.

The first featured performer is the violinist, composer and conductor Jaakko Kuusisto.

 

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The Seven Symphonies – A Finnish Murder Mystery Novel

by Simon Boswell

 

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See the 1927/1945 Aho & Soldan film ‘Sibelius at Home’ here.

 

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Sibelius all over the world – statues, memorials, road names…

Sibelius Road, Hull, England (photo: Paul Harraway)

The Sibelius monument in Korpo, Finland (2006)

Marienstraße 4, Berlin: the first of Sibelius’s three residences during his study year in Berlin (1889–90). Photo: Anjali Dhar

Plaque at Marienstraße 4, Berlin. Photo: Anjali Dhar

‘The composer Jean Sibelius, great son of the Finnish people, lived here in 1890–91. “Vienna is a place that is very much to my taste. Everything is so friendly and big, bright and clear. The air here is driving me crazy. Waltzes are spinning in my head – and all of them sound as if Schubert had written them.” (Sibelius, October 1890)’
Photo: Anjali Dhar

Many of Sibelius’s former Helsinki residences have been redeveloped. He lived here – Kalevankatu 45 (formerly Wladimirinkatu) – from the autumn of 1892 until the spring of 1893; it was his first proper home after his marriage to Aino Järnefelt, and his first daughter Eva was born here. Since Sibelius’s time two extra storeys have been added. Photo: Anjali Dhar

‘Medicine och kirurgie doktorn Christian Gustaf Sibelius *10/12-1821 †31/7/1868’,
The composer’s father’s grave, in Hämeenlinna.
Photo: Anjali Dhar

The house in Gloucester Walk, London, where Sibelius worked on his ‘Voces intimae’ string quartet in 1909. (Photo: © Paul Greenwood)