Sibelius: Finlandia op. 26/7

Finlandia was originally composed by Jean Sibelius for a series of tableaux presented as a part of the Finnish Press Celebrations held in 1899. The final part of the tableaux, called „Suomi herää“ (Finland awakes), had musical accompaniment which was later to become famous as the symphonic poem Finlandia. When the Philharmonic Orchestra was planning a starring tour with the Paris World Fair as its final venua, Sibelius was asked to write a Finlandia overture. Sibelius had already revised the tableaux music into a separate orchestral suite with Finale as its final part. Sibelius rewrote the finale part creating a new piece of work, separating it from the orchestral suite, and gave it the title Finlandia.