Composer Of The Week

Donald Macleod explores a crucial decade in Sibelius’s lifeThe 1910s were a crucial decade in Sibelius’s life. He would write some of his greatest works during these ten years, including his fourth and fifth symphonies and the beginnings of his sixth. Sibelius’s meditations on the symphony and its role in his creative life are a recurring theme in the week’s programmes.This period also reflects Sibelius’s life in microcosm, including his battles with alcohol and indebtedness; his need for the stimulus of foreign travel, and the periods of creative inertia, which would decisively return during his later years.We travel around the world with Sibelius, returning to Finland at the outbreak of the first world war, which would have a major impact on his life and work, not least with the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and Finland’s subsequent independence: these were formative events for Sibelius.We also home in on Sibelius’s personal life and relationships during the 1910s, including his money troubles coming to a head,