Word: sibelius
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...Bohemian garret-&-starvation conception of a great artist does not apply to Sibelius. Since 1897 he has enjoyed a modest pension from the Finnish state, which has provided him with leisure to compose. At his house at Jarvenpaa he lives the secluded life of a highly respectable country gentleman. His five daughters have long since gone forth to marry and raise families of their own. He and his wife live alone, looked after by two maids. He relishes good food and drink, smokes continually the best and largest Havana cigars, is partial between meals to well-aged whiskey served...
...Sphinx. About his own music Sibelius is cagey. Some have called him Sphinxlike, and he has found the description a great convenience. Nowadays, when English-speaking visitors get too inquisitive about how he composes or when his next symphony will be finished, he replies with regretful, laconic shrug: "I, Sphinx." There are grounds to suspect that he has quantities of early unpublished compositions stored about the house, that he has already outlined the movements of a Ninth Symphony in addition to those of his forthcoming Eighth. A visitor's inquisitiveness invariably brings the same Finnish shrug, the favorite, inevitable...
About other people's music Sibelius talks a great deal. But he was embarrassed by the wide publicity given his disparagement of Wagner, and has begun to hedge a little in his public statements. "Wagner, a genius . . . yo, yo, a great genius," he conceded airily to a recent interviewer. Earlier he had made no bones about his private estimate of the Pride of Bayreuth: "Wagner is rude, brutal, vulgar and completely lacking in delicacy! . . . For instance he shouts T love you, I love you.' To my mind that is something that you should whisper. . . . Look at his orchestration...
Whatever the rating he gives him, there can be no doubt that his favorite musician is Jean Sibelius. He owns three radios and never misses a broadcast of his own compositions, tuning in inaccurately and listening intently to the resultant howling mixture of music and static. "You must be a good, very good musician to listen to radio," he says, "to get details...
...Sibelius has conceived much of his music wandering through the forests surrounding his house. When engrossed in his work he keeps irregular hours, prefers to compose late at night. He proudly remembers that in his younger days he often worked three nights and two days at a stretch. Seldom does he use the piano when composing. He conceives and elaborates his ideas in his mind and puts pen to paper only when every detail of the score has been thought out. Once his notes are down on paper, he seldom makes alterations, and has often sent scores to publishers without...