Lovers of the music of Sibelius will be well aware that he worked on his Symphony No.8 at times during the 1930s and then consigned what he had written to the flames of a bonfire. What I did not realise was the quantity of sketch material that survives from that time (some 800 pages!). My attention was alerted a couple of weeks ago when Tom Service, in Symphony Question Time, played a recording from Helsinki supposed to be of the opening minute or so of the Eighth. The link below shows a short video of this performance with other fragments. The music begins at 2 minutes 10 seconds.
Information in English on the work itself and the fragments can be found here:
The loss of this work is one of the greatest tragedies of music in the last 100 years.
Information in English on the work itself and the fragments can be found here:
The loss of this work is one of the greatest tragedies of music in the last 100 years.
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