Word travels fast on tour, and the word from bass player Bill Schrickel in Finland was that composer Jean Sibelius’ house was a must-see site.  Called Ainola, this home is where Sibelius lived for most of his adult life and where he wrote many of his compositions, including the Violin Concerto which Viktoria Mullova is performing with the Orchestra on tour. Bill said that seeing this rustic space and its beautiful grounds made him understand Sibelius’ music a little bit better. So on our free day in Helsinki, my husband Steve and I decide to make the trip.

 

 

Considering Jean Sibelius’ tremendous fame and iconic status in Finland, Ainola is a very modest two-story house with a red tile roof and a giant, rough-around-the-edges kitchen.  We trail through the main floor: a small drawing room with lots of art on the walls, the library where Sibelius sat and smoked cigars, and a simple dining room with a massive green glaze tiled fireplace.  Apparently Sibelius associated certain colors with keys and this particular bright green signified F Major to him. Down the hall is a small bedroom that Sibelius used as his studio space in the 1940s when he could no longer easily climb the stairs.  A narrow bed—a cot, almost—is tucked in the corner, and there sits Sibelius’ hat and walking stick.

 

Sibelius and his wife Aino moved into Ainola in 1904 and raised five daughters there.  According to our guide book, Aino wasn’t initially so sure about the remote location. “At first it seemed completely impossible for me even to think of such a lonely home, even the road is so far away,” she wrote in a letter. But this tranquility was exactly what Sibelius required to write. We learn that he didn’t often use the Steinway grand piano in the corner to compose; he primarily heard his compositions in his head and then put them to paper.  Aino—who designed the sauna on the grounds and seems like a remarkable woman in her own right—and the daughters understood his need for absolute silence in the house when he was working.

 

The grounds at Ainola were a draw for Sibelius, and it’s easy to understand why.  We walk along a pine tree-laden path that leads to a spectacular view of yellow barley fields.  Sibelius used to sit in a chair made of roots here and contemplate his music; he called it his temple.  We wonder what music passed through his head in this exact site.  

 

Both Jean and Aino Sibelius lived at Ainola until they died in, respectively, 1957 and 1969. Both are buried on the grounds and now we walk past their joint grave marker—his name is huge, hers smaller in the corner—which is surrounded by apple trees.

 

We walk back to the train station through bright barley fields, and it is very quiet and very beautiful.

--Gwen Pappas