The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius

Previous volumes in this series have been reviewed by this journal, a recent example being The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky, which was found to be “illuminating” and “extremely fascinating” (RR 2004/101). Sibelius, however, is a different composer entirely from Stravinsky, even though he was born only 17 years earlier. Although he did not die until 1957, his reputation is firmly based on comparisons with 19th century composers, from Beethoven to Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, whose Salome from 1905 had a significant influence on Sibelius's Fourth Symphony of 1911. Furthermore, whilst Stravinsky had an international audience from his...