In February 1918 Russian troops arrived at Järvenpää (Sibelius’ hometown), shot his neighbor, and made two searches of Sibelius's house.
A Russian invasion of Finland (the fourth time in three centuries, with still one more to go in 1939) brought the conflict to Sibelius’ front door – literally. In 1917, Finland found itself at war with Russia after its declaration of independence from that country. In the years 1910–14, Sibelius struggled with the desire to be perceived by the world as a “modern” composer, but at the same time he rejected the prevailing styles established by Debussy, Mahler, and Strauss.Ĭomposing, frequently difficult for Sibelius even under the best of circumstances, was made even harder when the chaos and brutality of World War I engulfed Europe. Sibelius’ attempts to write a version of the Fifth Symphony that withstood his implacable self-criticism were hampered by personal problems and global upheaval. Always his own harshest critic, Sibelius struggled to give voice to his original musical conception of this strong, complex work over a period of six difficult years. “These symphonies of mine are more confessions of faith than are my other works,” wrote Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) in 1918, while working on his third revision of his Symphony No.
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