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Music

Sibelius is widely known for his symphonies and his tone poems, especially Finlandia and the Karelia suite. His reputation in Finland grew in the 1890s with the choral symphony Kullervo, which like many subsequent pieces drew on the epic poem Kalevala, and the First Symphony, performed to an enthusiastic audience in 1899 at a time when Finnish nationalism was evolving. In addition to six more symphonies, he gained popularity at home and abroad with incidental music and tone poems, especially En saga, The Swan of Tuonela and Valse triste. Sibelius also composed a series of works for violin and orchesta including a Violin Concerto, the opera Jungfrun i tornet, many shorter orchestral pieces, chamber music, works for piano and violin, choral works and numerous songs.

In the mid-1920s, after his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, he composed the symphonic poem Tapiola and incendental music for The Tempest. Thereafter, although he lived until 1957, he did not publish any further works of note although he worked on an Eighth Symphony which he later burned, leaving virtually no trace.

As for his musical style, Sibelius was influenced from the beginning by Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Bruckner and Tchaikovsky. Hints of Tchaikovsky's music are particularly evident in works such as his First Symphony his Violin Concerto. For a period was nevertheless overwhelmed by Wagner, particularly at the time when he was his opera. But for his tone poems, he was above all inspired by Lizst