The nationalism that colored Jean Sibelius's early works, including his first two symphonies, had faded by the penning of his fourth. Quite unlike his European and Eurasian contemporaries, his musings had begun to turn both inward and upon the classical tradition of symphonic composition, leaving him to become ever more in solitude, which one can feel so powerfully as low strings rumble the Fourth to life.
Afternoon Classical 05.19.15
