Finland

The building of the National Opera was finished in 1993.

This concert hall with 1700 seats was finished in 2011. There are two smaller halls. The architect was Marko Kivistö/LPR. Platform for the Helsinki P.O. and the Finnish Radio S.O. 

From 1971 to 2011, the Finlandia Hall by Alvar Aalto was the city’s concert hall.

The Music Academy was established in 1882 as Helsingfors Musikinstitut. From 1885 until 1890 Sibelius studied here violin and composition and until 1892 he teached here musical theory; since 1939 it was named after him. In 2013 it became a part of the University of Arts, in Finnish Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia.

The Sibelius monument is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Helsinki. Created in 1967 by Eila Hittunen, it consists of a bust of the national composer and a huge construction resembling 600 organ pipes – though the composer wrote only once for organ (2 pieces op. 111, 1925).

This modern building was Sibelius’ pied-à-terre in Helsinki during 1939-42. The street Kammiokatu was renamed Sibeliuksenkatu and is adjacent to the Sibelius Park. 

There are ten more apartments in Helsinki in which Sibelius has lived, for the most part during one winter season. These are the addresses:

before 1890: Kaivopuisto 19 + 22

1892: Kaivopuisto (Ullanlinnu baths)

1992-93: Kalevankatu 45, old name = Wladimirinkatu

1893-94: Puistokatu 9

1894-95: Itäinen Kaivopuisto 21

1895-98 (!): Kasarminkatu 22

1898-99: Liisankatu 21, = Elisabetinkatu

1902-03: Eerikinkatu 22

1903-04: Lönnrotinkatu 19, = Antinkatu

None of them is extant, as far as I know; only the address of 1993-94 has been provided with a Sibelius plaque, which mentions that the house was built in 1895…

The house Hopiala is on the Kulo island, in the northeast. It was the house of Heikki Klemetti (1876-1953), a popular composer of choir music, a conductor and writer; he lived here from 1934 until his death.

Then it became the house of the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016). His Cantus arcticus (1972), an orchestral work, interspersed with recorded bird song, is fascinating, as are some of his mystic late works (e.g. Symphony VII Angel of Light).

Grave of Fredrik Pacius (1809-91), a composer of German birth and Swedish-speaking, but regarded as ‘father of Finnish music’. He wrote the first opera in Finland and set the national anthem to words, in 1843 Vårt land, in 1848 adapted to a Finnish text, Maamme.

Grave of two composers Merikanto , Oscar (1868-1924) and his son Aarre (1893-1958); the latter was at first a modernist and not popular, later more moderate. His opera Juha from 1922 got its première only in 1963 and turned out to be a masterpiece, thus stirring interest in his other works too.

Grave of Armas Järnefelt (1869-1958), conductor and composer, brother-in-law of Sibelius.

Grave of the composer Uuno Klami (1900-61), >1341.

Graves of two befriended Ostrobothnian composers, Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947), >1611, and Toivo Kuula (1883-1018), whose vocal music is still appreciated, e.g. his Stabat Mater (1917).

Heikki Klemetti was interred on the nearby Vanhalle Hautausmaalle (old cemetery).

Birthplace of Jean Sibelius, °1865. The house, built in 1834, is a museum since 1960, exhibiting photographs, documents and personal belongings.

The Sibelius family lived in Hämeenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) until 1885 in several other residences: Palokunnankatu 5, Hallituskatu 5, Kasarmikatu 4 and Sibeliuksenkatu 15; the present state of these houses has not been verified.

The composer Tauno Marttinen (1912-2008)worked in Hämeenlinna from 1949 to 1975 as conductor of the local orchestra and as director of the music school. He wrote operas and a fine violin concerto.

House of Sibelius’ grandmother and aunt Evelina. He stayed often here during his youth and every summer from 1889 to ’92. Now a museum and a platform for concerts.

Monument (stone bust) of Sibelius.

In the old vicarage, the house of Mimmi Lundgren, Sibelius stayed in 1899 and worked at the 1^st Symphony.

Sibelius lived here from 1899 to 1902, writing one of his best works, the 2^nd Symphony.

Villa Ainola is the final home of Sibelius, which he had built in 1904 and occupied until his death in 1957, away from the noise of the city and from its expensive temptations which the composer hardly could resist. The house was called after his wife Aino; the architect was Lars Sunck. Since 1974 it is a museum and kept in the original state. The property includes a four-hectare park in which the composer and his wife were interred.

This villa by Finland’s star architect Alvar Aalto was built in 1969 for the composer Joonas Kokkonen (1921-96). His free chromaticism was inspired by, among others, Bartók. He held many influential positions in the Finnish musical life.

Today it is a musicians’ home and music centre. www.villakokkonen.fi

Monument of the composer Uuno Klami (1900-61), born in this village and died in his summer house in nearby Virolahti. He was more French-orientated than nationalist, but wrote a remarkable Kalevala Suite (1933/43).

Finland’s best collection of instruments (c 1000 pieces) is housed in this building from 1968. Also department of musicology of Turku University. The items on ethnic music were collected by O. Anderson in the 1920s. There is also a concert hall. The name Sibelius Museum is a little confusing.

The clarinetist, composer and linguist Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838) was born in this town and was commemorated by a plaque. His classical clarinet concertos and chamber music are still frequently performed.

The local culture centre is named after him. A woodwind festival, ‘Crusell Week’, is organized in each summer since 1982.

Crusell should have stayed here in 1788. A plaque mentions that this was the beginning of his career.

The museum of Heikko Klemetti (>1007) consists of his two summer houses and a sauna, built in 1903 and 1908 on the grounds of his birthplace. In the wooden houses are the original furnishings and many photos and memorabilia.

The composer Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) was born in Oulu. His monument is in the park around the city hall. The music school and concert hall are named after him. He honored his native region with the opera The Ostrobothnians (1924); other important works: Elegia for strings (1909) and the three symphonies.

The last addresses are in Karelia, the region which is regarded as the cradle of the Finnish culture, in spite of the fact that its major part presently belongs to Russia. Sibelius, composer of a Karelia Suite, had in 1992 a grand piano transported to the top of the hill Ukko-Koli, to add luster to his wedding celebrations.

Tchaikovsky stayed at the lake Onega in Karelia and Arensky died in a Karelian sanatorium, but that is now beyond the Russian border.

Kuhmo is a mix of a typically Karelian village and an open-air museum, full of traditional handcraft and customs that remind of the Finnish past and the mythical world of the Kalevala. This national epos, written down from oral tradition in 1835/1849, is the cornerstone of Finnish identity and a major source of inspiration to writers, artists and composers. Persons from the epos appear frequently in the works of Sibelius: Kullervo, Pohjola, Lemminkäinen, Luonnotar, Tapiola; also his TheSwan of Tuonela is inspired by the epos, as is of course the Kalevala Suite by Uuno Klami. The roots of Finnish folk songs are in Kalevala recitation.