Thank you for sharing your listening experience! I agree, I’ve heard many pieces live, among my privileges are Kullervo and the Oceanides, but not all are convincing, though when they are, they are truly an experience.1957? You were around during Sibelius’ life then?

(You can email me at dustofhue@gmail.com – I would love to read your poem).

Thanks for your intelligent, sensitive essays on Sibelius. I’ve been a Sibelius fan for many years and have collected some fine and interesting stuff written on the master, including The Cambridge Companion & David Hurwitz’s book, to mention only some fairly recent material. I loved your “Nutcase” essay on Tapiola in particular,and through your site I’ve read the piece on the possibly surviving fragments of the Eighth, and heard the music. Ah, the wonders of the web! Thank you! A haunting experience. I’m inclined to agree with Lorena that it’s better not to dredge up material, some of which might be very speculative, but to let the myth and mystery remain. In fact David Hurwitz argues that Sibelius wrote plenty (even Nine Symphonies if you count Kullervo and the Opus 22, Lemminkainen suite) and had every right to “retire.” However,the “silence at Jarvenpaa” is an attractive and haunting concept. It arouses thoughts of Prospero “drowning his book” (especially given the Tempest music!). I used it myself in my Sibelius poem (in my book Time’s Fools-2010).

Although born in NYC I’ve lived in Canada a long time and see a connection between the Canadian north and Sibelius (as Glenn Gould did!). I used the poem heading (“Widespread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests” etc) to Tapiola as an epigraph to my novel The Well of Time (Harper-Collins,1988)and wrote about a Sibelius concert in Quebec City in my recent mystery novel Nightshade (Dundurn, 2010). I’d love to send you the Sibelius poem, and will check for an address when I finish this.

One thing that I’ve found surprising over the years is the extreme difficulty of performing the symphonies really convincingly in the concert hall. Of course if you’re sitting in London or New York, or you live in Scandinavia, you will get some good performances, but elsewhere it’s difficult. I’ve heard some terrific Mahler, Bruckner, and just about all the great symphonic masters performed well in Ottawa over the years, but only a few convincing renderings of Sibelius (and always by visiting stars, e.g. Ashkenazy and the Leningrad). Recordings therefore become a huge treasure in the case of Sibelius, which is one reason I appreciate your comments and analysis of Berglund’s CDs (and everything else!). The best Sibelius I ever heard live was the Sixth done by Beecham in Washington a long time ago (1957?) Keep up the great work; it’s a pleasure to read your essays.

If a lost Mozart symphony were to be discovered, we would celebrate in joy – and we would play it with joy. But to rediscover a lost late work by Sibelius is akin to discovering nuclear energy in the 1940s, or maybe teleportation today. One marvels at the incredible revelation and potential it offers, but the prospect is most fearsome. You have to ask yourself: are we supposed to have this?

Thanks for your kind comments, as always, Lorena!

(It’s good to see you writing about Sibelius again).

Anthony Guneratne

PPS. Have you seen the movie The Red Violin?