Jean Sibelius

Tapiola op. 112

… a forest god in New York
The symphonic poem Tapiola is the final major composition for orchestra that Sibelius was able to complete and publish. In January 1926 he had accepted the commission from the conductor Walter Damrosch to compose an orchestral work of at most 20 minutes in length for a performance in New York at the end of that year. Shortly thereafter Sibelius was successful in getting Breitkopf & Härtel to do the first publication of this tone poem. The premiere of Tapiola took place on 26 December 1926. The new edition takes over the music text published in volume I/16 of the complete edition Jean Sibelius Works.