{"id":47053,"date":"2024-09-02T13:47:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T11:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/790b46ad-9384-48e3-a170-9e94a7e9f689"},"modified":"2024-09-02T14:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T12:07:16","slug":"behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Behaving like a spoilt, overgrown child’: how a move to the country saved Sibelius from heavy drinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 02 September 2024 at 11:47 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover how a move to the country saved Sibelius from heavy drinking and a life of excess<\/strong>…<\/p>

Sibelius in the city… heavy drinking and overspending<\/h2>
A place in the country… Since marrying in 1892, Jean Sibelius<\/a><\/strong> and his wife Aino had flirted frequently with the notion of owning a rural retreat of their own. By 1903, it was for Aino becoming less of an idyllic aspiration and more of an urgent necessity. Her husband \u2018Janne\u2019 was hopelessly prone to the attractions of city life in Helsinki, drinking excessively and overspending while Aino looked after their three daughters at home. He was, a friend of the family wrote, behaving like a \u2018spoilt overgrown child\u2019, and would \u2018go to pieces\u2019 if something wasn\u2019t done soon.<\/p>
Jean Sibelius: 10 masterpieces that unlock this magical composer<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
The composer himself was not impervious to the argument that Helsinki life was slowly destroying him creatively. \u2018My art demanded a different environment,\u2019 he later reflected. \u2018In Helsinki all melody died within me.\u2019 An opportunity to wrest himself away from the Finnish capital suddenly presented itself in July 1903. In that month, Axel Borg, a wealthy bachelor uncle of Sibelius, passed away, leaving his nephew money. Now, it seemed, the dream of rural living might finally be possible. Sibelius was, Aino reported, \u2018jumping up and down\u2019 with enthusiasm at the prospect.<\/p>
A move to the country… and away from excess<\/h2>
From that point on, events moved swiftly. By November, Sibelius had purchased a plot of land near the village of J\u00e4rvenp\u00e4\u00e4, 25 miles north of Helsinki by the shore of Lake Tuusula. \u2018At first I found it quite impossible to think of living there in isolation, because even the road is so far away,\u2019 Aino wrote. But her brother, the painter Eero J\u00e4rnefelt, was living there already with his family, joining a growing community of artists in the area. Perhaps, Aino reasoned, the move \u2018wouldn\u2019t be so difficult after all\u2019.<\/p>
A guide to Sibelius’s Kullervo<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Sibelius\u2019s friends and associates rallied to set the necessary arrangements in motion. The eminent architect Lars Sonck offered to design the property, and by Christmas foundations for a new villa had been laid. By February of 1904 the building materials were on site, and a team of 13 carpenters stood ready to begin construction. By now Sibelius was fully invested in the project, and willing it towards completion. \u2018This home is a necessity for my art, which is why it is so\u00a0important,\u2019 he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hilary Hahn performs Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France<\/figcaption><\/figure>Costs were, however, spiralling at J\u00e4rvenp\u00e4\u00e4, with loans and a large mortgage needed to supplement the inheritance from Uncle Axel. The pressure told on Sibelius who, perhaps disheartened by the dismal premiere of his Violin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-concerto\">Concerto<\/a><\/strong> in February 1904, proceeded to spend on alcohol a significant chunk of the money earmarked to pay his builders.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/how-drinking-led-sibelius-to-go-under-the-surgeons-knife\">Sibelius’s inability to stop drinking caused him to go under the knife<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new life away from heavy drinking… but no electricity or running water<\/h2>Financial worries notwithstanding, by September 1904 the new house was ready. Sibelius christened it \u2018Ainola\u2019 after his long-suffering wife, and on the 24th the family moved in. Initially, they occupied the ground floor with a maidservant… It was seven years before the attic space was finally converted to living quarters. An extension was eventually added too, and land purchased to enlarge the area around the property. To begin with there was no electricity or running water, although a telephone was available in the entrance hallway for communication purposes.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-recordings-of-sibeliuss-symphony-no-7\">The best recordings of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>It was in many ways an idyllic setting. \u2018Foals and sheep almost nosed their way into the house,\u2019 one Sibelius biographer recorded. \u2018And from time to time an elk majestically bestrode the grounds.\u2019 Sibelius never moved house again. He stayed at Ainola for the next half-century, writing numerous works including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-symphony\">Symphonies<\/a><\/strong> Nos 3-7. Today Ainola is a museum, furnished as it was when the composer lived there. \u2018Many people would say that my home is humble,\u2019 Sibelius commented. \u2018But it is good enough for me.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Published: Monday, 02 September 2024 at 11:47 AM Read on to discover how a move to the country saved Sibelius from heavy drinking and a life of excess… Sibelius in the city… heavy drinking and overspending A place in the country… Since marrying in 1892, Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino had flirted frequently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47054,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/behaving-like-a-spoilt-overgrown-child-how-a-move-to-the-country-saved-sibelius-from-heavy-drinking.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Monday, 02 September 2024 at 11:47 AM Read on to discover how a move to the country saved Sibelius from heavy drinking and a life of excess… Sibelius in the city… heavy drinking and overspending A place in the country… Since marrying in 1892, Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino had flirted frequently…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/47053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}