Editing Jean Sibelius (section)

===Last major works===
[[File:Sibelius-puolisot kesäiltana kasvitarhan penkillä, 1940-1945, (d2005 167 6 101) Suomen valokuvataiteen museo.jpg|thumb|Sibelius and Aino in [[Järvenpää]] (early 1940s)]]

The year 1926 saw a sharp and lasting decline in Sibelius's output: after his Seventh Symphony, he produced only a few major works during the rest of his life. Arguably the two most significant of these were the incidental music for ''The Tempest'' and the tone poem ''Tapiola''.{{sfn|Botstein|2011}} For most of the last thirty years of his life, Sibelius even avoided talking publicly about his music.{{sfn|Mäkelä|2011|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KZbZJHaL_9AC&pg=PA67 67–68]}}

There is substantial evidence that Sibelius worked on an eighth symphony. He promised the premiere of this symphony to [[Serge Koussevitzky]] in 1931 and 1932, and a London performance in 1933 under [[Basil Cameron]] was even advertised to the public. The only concrete evidence of the symphony's existence on paper is a 1933 bill for a fair copy of the first movement and short draft fragments first published and played in 2011.{{sfn|Kilpeläinen|1995}}{{sfn|Sirén|2011a}}{{sfn|Sirén|2011b}}{{sfn|Stearns|2012}} Sibelius had always been quite self-critical; he remarked to his close friends, "If I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh, then it shall be my last." Since no manuscript survives, sources consider it likely that Sibelius destroyed most traces of the score, probably in 1945, during which year he certainly consigned a great many papers to the flames.<ref>{{cite web |title=The war and the destruction of the eighth symphony 1939–1945 |work=Jean Sibelius |publisher=Finnish Club of Helsinki |url=http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/sib_kahdeksannen_tuhoaminen.htm |access-date=30 September 2006 |archive-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208192801/http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/sib_kahdeksannen_tuhoaminen.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> His wife Aino recalled,
<blockquote>In the 1940s there was a great ''[[auto da fé]]'' at Ainola. My husband collected a number of the manuscripts in a laundry basket and burned them on the open fire in the dining room. Parts of the ''Karelia Suite'' were destroyed&nbsp;– I later saw remains of the pages which had been torn out&nbsp;– and many other things. I did not have the strength to be present and left the room. I therefore do not know what he threw on to the fire. But after this my husband became calmer and gradually lighter in mood.{{sfn|Ross|2009}}</blockquote>

Despite his withdrawing from the public eye, Sibelius's work gained substantial attention in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s thanks to the newly established Finnish broadcaster [[YLE]]. Broadcasting on [[AM broadcasting|AM wavebands]], YLE's signals brought Sibelius's music to listeners beyond Finland's borders, too.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 April 2024 |title=Radio broadcasts catapulted Jean Sibelius to global fame, new study reveals |url=https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/culture/25107-radio-broadcasts-catapulted-jean-sibelius-to-global-fame-new-study-reveals.html |access-date=11 April 2024 |work=Helsinki Times |language=en-gb}}</ref> In 1933, YLE and the [[Helsinki City Orchestra]] with soloist [[Anja Ignatius]] originated a broadcast of Sibelius compositions to 14 countries in coordination with the [[International Broadcasting Union]]. The program included the tone poem ''[[The Oceanides]]'', followed by his [[Symphony No. 5 (Sibelius)|Fifth Symphony]], and the Violin Concerto.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mäkelä |first=Janne |date=27 March 2024 |title=Radio ja Sibelius: Rajoja ylittävä mediasuhde vuosina 1926–1957 |trans-title=Radio and Sibelius: A cross-border media relationship over the years |url=https://journal.fi/lahikuva/article/view/144520 |journal=Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu |volume=37 |issue=1 |page=18 |language=fi |doi=10.23994/lk.144520 |issn=2343-399X|doi-access=free }}</ref> In 1935 The New York Philharmonic surveyed the preferences of music listeners around the United States. When asked who their favourite composer was, Sibelius came first among all of them, living or dead. This degree of recognition during his own lifetime was unequalled in Western music.<ref name="NYT">[https://www.nytimes.com/1935/11/24/archives/behind-the-scenes-jan-sibelius-wins-nationwide-poll-among-listeners.html Jean Sibelius Wins Nation-Wide Poll Among Listeners]. New York Times, 24 November 1935.</ref>