which was destined to remain his home and inspiration for over half a century.
impassioned lyricism was inspired originally by a protracted working holiday
in Florence and sun-drenched Rapallo (on the north-western coast of Italy)
of ease and structural inevitability are also deceptive as some of the material
(most notably the slow movement) was derived from other abandoned
Although Sibelius insisted that his latest masterwork was entirely free of
accurately sums up the feelings of those present on the premiere night. ‘The
against all the injustice that threatens at the present time to deprive the sun of
and every second seems to last an hour. One can sense in the oboe motif of
during the opening Allegretto. Sibelius appears determined to extract the
melody and stoic resilience culminates in a bracingly optimistic coda.
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