Piano Music - Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius


1865 - 1957
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.

📖 “Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.”


📖 “If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.”


📖 “I often conduct an orchestra in my sleep; my orchestras are so huge that the back desks of the violas vanish into the horizon. And everything is so wonderful.”


📖 “Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public pure cold water.”


📖 “Music is on a higher plane than everything else in this world.”


📖 “Musicians talk of nothing but money and jobs. Give me businessmen every time. They really are interested in music and art”


📖 “If we understood the world, we would realise that there is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent dissonances.”


📖 “Music is, for me, like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.”


📖 "Give me the loneliness either of the Finnish forest or of a big city."


📖 "I believe that music alone - that is to say, absolute music - cannot by itself satisfy."
In Letter to J. J. Erkko (1893)


📖 "Give me the loneliness either of the Finnish forest or of a big city."
in Layton's Sibelius (1965)


📖 "Looks at the great nations of Europe and what they have endured. No savage could have stood so much. I do believe in civilisation."
In Mellers' The Listener (1 December 1995)


📖 "Whatever path you choose, Glorious Ego - don't sacrifice the life-giving warmth and vitality that lies at the heart of your music. You won't be any 'greated' by outdoing … your contemporaries in terms of a revolutionary 'profile'. Let's not join in any race."
In diary, June 1912, quoted in Tawaststjerna's Sibelius II (1986)

Quotes by Jean Sibelius


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Download Piano Music by Sibelius


👉 Sibelius, Jean 10 Pensées lyriques, Op. 40



Explore Recordings of Sibelius' Music


Sibelius - Valse Triste
Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra
Leopold Stokowski, conductor



Jean Sibelius - Valse Triste
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie
Paavo Järvi, conductor



Sibelius - Complete Symphonies No.1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and Presentation (Century's recording)
Hallé Orchestra
Sir John Barbirolli, conductor



Jean Sibelius ‒ 13 Piano Pieces, Op. 76
No. 1 Esquisse
No. 2 Etude
No. 3 Carillon
No. 4 Humoresque
No. 5 Consolation
No. 6 Romanzetta
No. 7 Affettuoso
No. 8 Piece enfantine
No. 9 Arabesque
No. 10 Elegiaco
No. 11 Linnaea (Twinflower of the North)
No. 12 Capriccietto
No. 13 Harlequinade
Håvard Gimse, piano



Jean Sibelius - Violin concerto op. 47
David Oistrakh, violin
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy, conductor
Recorded in 1959








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