Composer of the Week - Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957) - Episode 4

In today's episode, Donald Macleod introduces the only existing recording of Sibelius conducting - a colourful rendition of his own Andante Festivo on New Year's Day, 1939. We'll also hear the extraordinary Funeral Music for organ, written after the death of one of his greatest friends, the painter Akseli Gallén-Kallela in 1931 - and usually considered his last work. Sibelius, by now wracked by writer's block over the Eighth Symphony, tried his hardest to wriggle out of his commitment to mark his friend's passing in music. But, unable to escape, he produced a bizarre, otherworldly soundworld.like nothing he'd ever written before. So then: his last original work? Not quite. Donald explores the extraordinary story of Sibelius' music for the Freemasons.and we'll hear two brief pieces, apparently written in a single, fevered night in 1946 - the first new pieces for some 15 years, and the last Sibelius was to ever let see light of day.