Sibelius - Tapiola ( Full ) Neeme Järvi ( DGG ) Sibelius ' powerful landscape of cool waters , endlessly forests and massive rock formations in a mighty composition on one single theme , with completely new sounds . This must be one of the best compositions for the Symphony Orchestra ever made . The shots are taken from the film Sibelius - the early years , but I ' ve edited them in a completely different matter . .... Jean Sibelius - Tapiola , Op . 112 , Symphonic Poem for Orchestra The Danish National Symphony OrchestraLeif Segerstam , conductor . Op . 112 Tapiola , symphonic poem for orchestra . Completed 1926 . First public performance in New York , 26 th December 1926 ( New York Symphonic Society , conducted by Walter Damrosch ) . Jean Sibelius ' s orchestral poems culminate in Tapiola in 1926 . This was Sibelius ' s last masterpiece for orchestra . In August 1927 he would send to his publisher the suites which he had prepared from the incidental music for The Tempest , but the suites do not meet the expectations aroused by the original incidental music . In contrast , Tapiola is one of Sibelius ' s most original and ingenious masterpieces , and one of the most remarkable compositions of the 20 th century . Tapiola was a commissioned work . In January 1926 Sibelius consented to write a symphonic poem for the New York conductor Walter Damrosch The work was to have a duration of 15 - 20 minutes . The economic situation of the composer had already improved , and he pampered himself by travelling to Rome to compose his Kalevala - based material . The journey also included a holiday on the island of Capri . Sibelius ' s letters from Rome reveal that the working title of the composition was originally " The Wood " ( i . e . in English ) . Aino Sibelius corrected this to " The Forest ". Tapiola was completed at Ainola at the end of August 1926 , but in September Sibelius sent a telegram to the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel , asking to get the score back for corrections . His usual habit had been to make the final corrections to the score after the première , which he conducted himself . Now that possibility did not exist , since Damrosch would be conducting the première in New York . The correction work began to bore him . " I regret accepting this ' commission '. ' The Tempest ' and ' Väinö ' s Song ' are ' commissions ' as well . Am I made for this ? " he wondered , writing also that he was drinking whisky . Sibelius motivated himself sufficiently to make the few necessary corrections to the work after his last trip abroad , i . e . when he conducted an orchestra in Copenhagen . His self - criticism had not yet increased to the point of impossibility . Damrosch received the score in November , in good time for the first public performance of the work . Sibelius also sent to the publisher an explanation of the position of Tapio in Finnish mythology . The publisher prepared from this a quatrain motto for the published score . The original quatrain suggested by Sibelius can be translated as follows : " In Pohjola there are thick , dark foreststhat dream wild dreams , forever secret . Tapio ' s eerie dwellings are thereand half - glimpsed spirits , and the voices of twilight . " The work was performed for the first time in New York on Boxing Day and the reception was rather poor . Even Olin Downes , the enthusiastic Sibelian from the New York Times , was perplexed , although he wrote an appreciative review of the work . Tapiola gained even less understanding from the New York Herald Tribune ' s Lawrence Gilman . In Finland , Kajanus conducted the work on 25 th April 1927 . on this occasion the overture to The Tempest and the seventh symphony also received their first performances in Finland . According to the composer Leevi Madetoja , Tapiola was a " multifaceted " work : " At times we hear the melancholy , repeated call of an elf , at times a lonely wanderer in the woods is giving vent to the pain of life . A beautiful work , technically close to the seventh symphony . " Heikki Klemetti was equally poetic . According to him Tapiola contained the scent of the marshes , the flight of an eagle , strange creatures and the rich poetry of the woodlands . Hufvudstadsbladet ' s Karl Ekman was the most analytical . He noticed the variations which develop from the " initial melody " of the work . Indeed , Tapiola is a monothematic whole -- although there has been disagreement as to whether the core motif can actually be considered a theme . Erkki Salmenhaara argues that it is not . In his view , the " core " motif gives rise to at least four central , interconnected basic motifs . These , in their turn , produce " around thirty highly characteristic , original and inimitably Sibelian musical motifs ". Sibelius - Tapiola ( Full ) Berlin Philharmoniker OrchestraHerbert von Karajan - ConductorRecorde in 1984