To St. Petersburg round the Baltic Cruise - Helsinki & Sibelius

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Helsinki - Capital of Finland - Sibelius tour

Helsinki from the sea

Islands as we come into Helsinki

I went for breakfast at 0730, as I was supposed to be on the dock at 9 but the ship was running late yet again. Jacquie offered Avis a tour place, so she came with me on the "Sibelius Experience" tour. The native guide Lisa was very good & got big applause at the end. She took us out to Ainola first, which we had a good look round.

The house guide put the best gloss possible on Sibelius' nature & told some fibs. I had a Sibelius fanatic on the bus, who had strongly disapproved of my talk. Then, we went to the Aino Hall for a brief concert of Sibelius played by violin & piano, the latter playing an arrangement of Finlandia which did not really work. On the way back, we went through the sights of Helsinki but there is nowhere to park at the Sibelius Monument, so we just slowly drove by. We were only back to the ship at 1440 for a late lunch, rather hurried.

Sibelius' house "Ainola"

Aino's vegetable garden

Sibelius' sauna

Aino Hall

Islands as we left Helsinki

I had given a life-and-works talk called "Sibelius, the Last Romantic" 4 days before, the "Romantic" referring to the nature of his music & how, by reducing the amount of material he used, he painted himself into a corner, hence, no 8th Symphony. However, I had to reveal his character, the worst of any of the Great Composers, a category he certainly belongs in. For example, Aino had that vegetable garden to feed her 6 daughters, because he drank all the money that should have fed & educated them.


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Port 4 - St. Petersburg (Russia)

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Contact: Ken Baldry at 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him
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