Sibelius - A Symphony That Burned

The story of Jean Sibelius's Eighth Symphony - with extracts from new musical fragments performed exclusively for the programme.

One morning in 1945, Jean Sibelius, took the pages of a symphony that had brought him to the brink of despair and burned the lot. The composer wanted to destroy the work before it destroyed him.

His Eighth Symphony became the most notorious 'lost work' in classical music. Not a single note could be traced. And then, in 2011, three, short, fragments of music were revealed - the culmination of years of painstaking research through piles of manuscript sketches. The only evidence of any orchestral work by Sibelius during the 'silence of Ainola'. And almost certainly the only tantalising glimpse we may ever have of his fabled Eighth Symphony.

Writer and broadcaster Peggy Reynolds visits Sibelius's home near Helsinki to unpick - for the first time - the riddle of Sibelius's Eighth Symphony, with contributions from the British conductor and Sibelius expert Sir Mark Elder. Peggy also presents a performance of newly-discovered musical fragments, performed exclusively for the programme by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under John Storgards. After nine decades, this may be the closest we ever get to experiencing the most infamous lost work in 20th century music.

Producer Steven Rajam

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2012

The story of Sibelius's 'lost' Eighth Symphony - and its remarkable rediscovery.