The quest to compose drove [Sibelius's] life, yet as Grimley notes, much else about him is hard to pin down . . . This complexity is embraced in a wide-ranging yet taut narrative, in which the musical works are balanced with the life story. And while this is far from the first Sibelius biography, the British academic adds something new by meticulously drawing on relevant cultural, artistic, historical and political context. Broad ideas are interrogated, whether that's the complexity of national identity or the vision of the Finnish forest composer. The insightful musical analysis makes a wonderful case for the rarer songs and theatre music

Composer Jean Sibelius is almost always associated with nationalism, particularly in his homeland of Finland. However, as Grimley demonstrates, Sibelius was a composer of much more depth than just his well-known major works. He also composed theater works, songs, and chamber works. Grimley examines this broader catalog and also considers some of the revised chronology issues to Sibelius’s catalog discovered through work on the complete edition of Sibelius's works . . . Sibelius is so much more than just a few labels, and Grimley delicately places Sibelius both within his time and within his own popular canon. Recommended