Baron Axel Carpelan, who gave Sibelius' well-known tone poem Finlandia its name, wrote to the composer shortly after its successful premiere, writing, "You have been sitting at home for quite a while, Mr. Sibelius, it is high time for you to travel. You will spend the late autumn and the winter in Italy, a country where one learns cantabile, balance and harmony, plasticity and symmetry of lines, a country where everything is beautiful – even the ugly. You remember what Italy meant for Tchaikovsky’s development and for Richard Strauss." Although Baron Carpelan was penniless, he raised sufficient funds for Sibelius to stay in a mountain villa near Rapallo, Italy. Here, Sibelius jotted down the first notes to his second symphony.
Date of composition | 1902 (Started in winter 1901 in Rapallo, Italy, and finished in 1902 in Finland. Revised in 1903) in Rapallo, Metropolitan City of Genoa, Italy |
Premiered | 1902, March 8th in Helsinki, Finland by Jean Sibelius |
Type | Symphony |
Tonality | D Major |
Catalogue | Op. 43 |
Approx. duration | 45 minutes |
Instruments | Orchestra |
In listings |
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Famous Works
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Autotranslations beta |
Jean Sibelius: Symphonie n°2 en ré majeur, Op. 43 Jean Sibelius: Sinfonia n. 2 in re maggiore, Op. 43 Jean Sibelius: Sinfonie Nr. 2 D-dur, Op. 43 |