Sibelius Eight. What happened to it?
Sibelius Eight. What happened to it?
During the last three decades of his life, Sibelius was locked in a desperate struggle with the forces of creation, the expectations of those around him and his own growing self-criticism. By the end, the vital question had been whittled down to: perfection or completion? Consciously or unconsciously, Sibelius plumped for perfect. Kari Kilpeläinen here traces the history of the elusive eighth symphony in the light of the documents that have been preserved. Anyone interested in reading more about the subject would do well to dig out Volume 1 of the Finnish Music Quarterly (1985), in which Erik Tawaststjerna takes a broad look at the background to ‘Sibelius 8′.
