"This work of mine will be wonderful. Getting it finished just seems to take so long. But I suppose there is no hurry with it."
TO HIS WIFE AINO, FROM BERLIN, 1928.
"The Symphony is making great progress. And I must get it finished, while I have all my mental strength."
TO AINO FROM BERLIN, ON SIBELIUS'S LAST TRIP ABROAD IN THE SPRING OF 1931.
"I am writing my eighth symphony and I am full of youthfulness. How can this be explained?"
JS, DIARY ENTRY, 18.12.1931.
"No symphony this season STOP Have written to Cherkassky [Paul Cherkassky, leader of the Boston Symphony Orchestra]."
JANUARY 15TH, 1932, A TELEGRAM TO SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, CONDUCTOR OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, TO WHOM THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK HAD BEEN PROMISED, BACK IN AUGUST 1930.
"It would be good if you could perform my symphony at the end of October. This would then be the world première. I will probably send you a handwritten score because - as you say - publishers respect nothing. With my best wishes, I remain, dear Maestro, yours, Jean Sibelius."
TO KOUSSEVITZKY, JUNE 6TH, 1932.
"Unfortunately I have mentioned October as the month for the première of my new symphony. But this is not certain as I have had all sorts of interruptions. Please do not advertise any performance."
TO KOUSSEVITZKY, JULY 14TH, 1932.
"You have no idea how clever it is."
TO GEORG SCHNÉEVOIGT, CONDUCTOR OF THE HELSINKI PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, DECEMBER 1932.
"Regret impossible this season STOP Have written to Cherkassky January 2nd, yours Sibelius."
TO KOUSSEVITZKY, JANUARY 17TH, 1933, AFTER KOUSSEVITZKY HAD EXPRESSED "WORRY" AND "GREAT CONCERN" OVER NON-ARRIVAL OF SCORE.
"It is as if I had returned home. In my art. Am writing, i.e. forging the first "movement". Take everything in another way, deeper. A gypsy in me. Romantic."
JS, DIARY ENTRY 4TH MAY, 1933.
"Schluss: Fermate. Largo sofort anschliessen. Das ganze wird ungefär achtmal dieses."
DRAFTED NOTE TO COPYIST PAUL VOIGT ON COMPLETION OF THE COPYING OUT OF THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF THE EIGHTH SYMPHONY IN SEPTEMBER 1933. THE ACTUAL LETTER SENT TO VOIGT HAS SINCE EMERGED.
"He has without hesitation abandoned an entire year's work, on an orchestral piece."
ELSA VON BORN QUOTES THE COMPOSER IN AN INTERVIEW IN THE FALL OF 1935.
"My Eighth Symphony has been "finished" many times. I have already burnt the whole thing once."
SIBELIUS TO HIS SECRETARY SANTERI LEVAS IN AUGUST 1945. A VERY SIMILAR FORM OF WORDS APPEARS IN A LETTER WRITTEN TO BASIL CAMERON [CONDUCTOR OF THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY IN LONDON], JUST A FEW DAYS EARLIER. SIBELIUS HAD PROMISED CAMERON THE FIRST EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK.
"It is not ready. It exists only in drafts and sketches, but I have not been able to get myself together so as to complete it."
TO OTTO ANDERSSON [FRIEND AND MUSICOLOGIST] IN 1955, TWO YEARS BEFORE THE COMPOSER'S DEATH.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.10.2011
Note: From these isolated comments and from Sibelius's extensive correspondence with Koussevitzky during the early 1930s, it is easy to see that the composer was very "up and down" with his symphony - by turns enthusiastic (at least outwardly) and by turns panic-stricken at the corner into which he had boxed himself by rashly agreeing to submit the work for performance in Boston. His wife Aino noted a calmer, more optimistic Sibelius after the manuscript was consigned to the flames. The ageing composer's self-criticism had turned the project into a long and gruelling nightmare. The whole subject is also covered in detail in the Sibelius biography by the late Professor Erik Tavaststjerna. Regrettably, Tavaststjerna's earlier two-part article in Finnish Music Quarterly from 1985 (referenced in the external link to Kari Kilpeläinen's own article) is not available online.
