Welcome to the second part of our exploration of the life and music of Jean Sibelius, presented by Wise Music Group Creative Director Gill Graham and award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster Stephen Johnson. Featuring excerpts of the great Finnish composer’s work, the conversation explores:

- how - and why - he stopped writing 

- the music he composed for theatrical productions including the first Danish staging of Shakespeare’s The Tempest

- how he designed his symphonies and tone poems to be interpreted in different ways

- Lemminkäinen Suite’s delicate, masterful balance as half- symphony, half- tone poem

- the unique way in which Sibelius’ symphonic palette was able to evoke nature in all its magnificence and subtlety

Musical Excerpts:

• Sibelius The Tempest, Op. 109 - Overture, The Ship Sinks Beneath The Waves - Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
• Sibelius The Tempest - 2. The Oak Tree - Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française / Thomas Beecham
• Sibelius En Saga, Op. 9 - Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä
• Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite, Op. 22 - The Swan Of Tuonela - Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä

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