Jean Sibelius
Sibelius is best known for his symphonies and tone-poems. His symphonies are very different from one another, none can be described as being “typical” of his style. The early symphonies are Romantic in character, in the later symphonies he tries out lots of new ideas and sounds. His Violin Concerto is played by all the great violinists. Sibelius wrote lots of songs for voice and piano. These are mostly settings of Swedish poems. He also wrote many choral works, mostly in Finnish. These vocal works are not so well known outside Finland because the language is not familiar abroad, but there are some very good songs, especially Luonnotar. Besides his important works he also wrote many short works in order to earn enough money to live. These include songs as well as many short piano pieces.