Finland · 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 in Hämeenlinna in southern Finland and died in 1957 in Järvenpää. He came from a Swedish-speaking family but attended a Finnish-speaking school. He initially began studying law, but then turned entirely to music. His education took him, among other places, to Helsinki, Berlin and Vienna. In addition to seven symphonies, he composed symphonic poems, incidental music, songs and a violin concerto.

His work emerged during a period when Finland belonged to the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy and an independent Finnish culture and national identity were taking shape. Several works draw on material from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. These include the tone poem En saga, the Lemminkäinen Suite and the large-scale work Kullervo. Sibelius combined this subject matter with the forms of European art music.

Finlandia became particularly closely associated with Finland’s political history. The piece was composed in 1899 in connection with an event in support of the press, at a time when Russian authorities were increasingly restricting Finnish autonomy and freedom of expression. Because of censorship, it was for a time performed under innocuous titles. A section of the work was later given lyrics and became known as the Finlandia Hymn; the Finnish national anthem, however, is a different song.

Observations of nature played a recurring role in Sibelius’ musical imagination. From 1904 onward, he lived with his family in Ainola, a house near the Tuusulanjärvi named after his wife Aino. The rural surroundings, and forest and bird imagery in particular, appear in his notes and in works such as The Swan of Tuonela and the Fifth Symphony. The depiction of nature on the coin therefore does not refer to a single work, but rather to a broader connection between his oeuvre and the Finnish landscape.

The choice of the anniversary reflects Sibelius’ position in Finland’s cultural memory. His music is associated both with the country’s cultural self-understanding and with the period before Finnish independence. In Finland, the anniversary year was also marked by numerous concerts and events.