Sibelius as Violinist and Composer

This chapter presents an overview of Sibelius’s early musical training, especially as a violinist. It highlights the life-long persistence of Sibelius’s violin training in his musical imagination. It introduces key questions that are pursued throughout the book: What is the labor of virtuosity? How are performing traditions formed over time? What are the cross-genre musical influences in Sibelius’s violin concerto? The discussion in this chapter unfolds in relation to philosophical discourses on beauty and statehood, as well as on the idea of the virtuoso’s political potential, which builds on nineteenth-century views on the redemptive potential of civic action and on military-heroic symbolism in performance.