Jean Sibelius

While some critics of his era found him insufficiently radical, the composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) has never had a problem finding audiences who love and enjoy his music. A national hero in his native Finland, Sibelius wrote seven symphonies and likely planned an eighth. Alongside these, his tone poems and concert works exhibit splendidly the distinctive elements of his musical style: expressive melodies, simple but richly orchestrated harmonies and a stately elegance influenced by Tchaikovsky and Bruckner. En Saga, the Karelia suite and the Violin Concerto are among his best-known works, but the most famous is the single-movement symphonic poem Finlandia – its main theme became a quasi-national anthem in Finland and the tune to several Christian hymns.

Sibelius was born Johan, but as a student he changed his first name to its French form, Jean. He began learning music too late to follow a performing career, so he took to composing and had completed the majority of his output by the late 1920s, despite living another three decades.