“Sibelius is unquestionably a leader in the front rank of symphonic composers. He has got out of the ruts worn by his predecessors far more completely than Brahms got away from Beethoven, or even Richard Strauss from Wagner. If someone would only burn Finlandia he would come to our young people as an entirely original inventor of a new art form and a new harmony technique.”

— Jean Sibelius

George Bernard Shaw, in the Manchester Guardian, November 1, 1938.
Criticism

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Jean Sibelius 12

Finnish composer of the late Romantic period 1865–1957

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