When I conducted in Reval and Riga by invitation in the summer of 1904, I had to call it РІР‚СљImpromptu.РІР‚СњРІР‚в„ўР”Р„lthough FinlandРІР‚в„ўs status between 18 as a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire has been the subject of considerable work by historians, the policies of Russification that were in place between 1899 and FinlandРІР‚в„ўs final independence eighteen years later have been at the centre of the story of how a small nation bravely won self-determination despite its being under the shadow of a vast imperial power. At the farewell concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra before leaving for Paris, when the tone-poem was played for the first time in its revised form, it was called РІР‚СљSuomi.РІР‚Сњ It was introduced by the same name in Scandinavia in German towns it was called РІР‚СљVaterland,РІР‚Сњ and in Paris РІР‚СљLa Patrie.РІР‚Сњ In Finland its performance was forbidden during the years of unrest, and in other parts of the Empire it was not allowed to be played under any name that in any way indicated its patriotic character. РІР‚ВIt was actually rather late that Finlandia was performed under its final title. Seen as a protest against Russian domination, the work was subject to a highly politicized interpretation in which Sibelius himself was complicit-as he explains with these words: Although FinlandРІР‚в„ўs status between 18 as a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire and Russianisation has been the subject of considerable debate with the image of a small nation courageously winning self-determination in the face of a mighty imperial power, it was SibeliusРІР‚в„ў Finlandia that embodied, to the outside world, his role in the development of Finnish national consciousness and the move to political self-determination. Therein lies the question of national identity and musical influence. It is therefore necessary to commence within the context of Russian culture and history. An emblematic figure of the classical musical world and a Finnish national hero.Р”Р„NY DISCUSSION OF THE LIFE AND MUSIC of Jean Sibelius would be incomplete without a glance at the history of the land where he was born, the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Czarist Empire. Finlandia is a biography of Jean Sibelius, his life and times.

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