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‘This boozing \u2013 in itself an exceptionally pleasant occupation \u2013 has really gone too far.\u2019 The composer Jean Sibelius<\/a><\/strong> wrote these words in 1907, when two decades of self-indulgence and carousing were finally catching up on him. As well as regularly downing liberal quantities of alcohol \u2013 one famous painting, Akseli Gallen-Kallela\u2019s The Symposium<\/i>, shows the composer, seated with his companions, decidedly the worse for wear during a drinking session \u2013 Sibelius was a connoisseur of fine cigars, a habit he may have picked up from his father.<\/p> Together, the tobacco and alcohol were taking their toll. In November 1907, while in St Petersburg conducting his Third Symphony, Sibelius complained of hoarseness in his voice. This persisted, and in the New Year he was hospitalised for a period. \u2018He will soon be dead,\u2019 his mentor Axel Carpelan wrote, \u2018unless he stops smoking and consuming spirits.\u2019 <\/p>\u2018He will soon be dead unless he stops smoking and drinking\u2019<\/h2><\/div><\/div>