Gleaming Glow

The most famous motif of the Fifth Symphony of Sibelius comes in the final movement. Often drawing inspiration from nature, Sibelius’s connection with the Finnish landscape was integral to his identity. “Today at ten to eleven I saw sixteen swans,” he wrote in his diary in 1915. “One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming silver ribbon.” This moment ...