Lemminkäinen, first version & Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower)

Lemminkäinen, first version
13.4.1896 

The audience gave Lemminkäinen a favourable reception, but for Nya Pressen critic Karl Flodin it was literally too much: “Mr Sibelius provides music not only qualitatively but also quantitatively, far too much music.” Almost in the same breath he actually went so far as to suggest that the new work by Sibelius was not in every respect any longer music…

Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower)
7.11.1896 

The libretto of the one-act opera The Maiden in the Tower performed at a fund-raising event on behalf of the Philharmonic Society and its orchestra school struck the Päivälehti critic as being “cobbled together in haste and at times also fragmentary”. He did not, however, find any fault with Sibelius’s music.

Text: Timo Virtanen
Picture: National Library's Digital Collections (Hufvudstadsbladet no 99)