As I was doing my morning walk on Saturday in H-Town [from March 6, 2016] I was listening to my local classical radio station, which is now on Houston Public Media/Classical ; they played the great stirring Finlandia by the Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius.
The host gave some very interesting history of the piece I did not know and it put the rather ominous, dark opening of the piece in perspective. Russia [the Russian Empire in 1899 at the time of the composition by Sibelius] censored any outward showing of pride in Finland. So, the opening, many think, was a music code as a protest against this censorship by Russia.
Because Sibelius wanted to disguise from Russia that this piece was actually the ultimate in pride for his Finland, he couldn’t, at first, name the piece Finlandia. So, the first name of this emotional piece was “Happy Feelings At the Awakening of Spring”.
Please turn up the volume, put in full screen, and listen to this beautiful epic patriotic piece from Jean Sibelius for his beloved Finland: Finlandia:
