Jean Sibelius: Heir and Innovator

After the 24-year-old Jean Sibelius had traveled to Vienna in October 1890 in the hope of becoming a composition student under Anton Bruckner, he had to realize to his disillusionment that the latter, as a professor at the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, had shortly before the requested position retired and only taught sporadically. Although he was therefore unable to learn from Bruckner firsthand, as he had hoped, the works he was able to hear and study in Vienna exerted an enormous influence on the young composer. Overwhelmed by the first performance of the 1889 version  of Bruckner's Symphony No.3 on December 21, 1890, he wrote to his fiancée Aino Järnefelt: "In my opinion, he is the greatest living composer." Under the baton of its new Music Director Vasily Petrenko, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra makes it possible to hear the deep marks that Bruckner's musical legacy left on the work of the great Finnish symphonist. Sergey Khachatryan, who was named the youngest winner of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki in 2000 at the age of 15, is dedicated to his famous Violin Concerto in D minor.