Jean Sibelius: Valse Triste, The Waltz of Death

Sibelius achieved his greatest popularity with Valse triste, a sad waltz which he composed for a play called Death, written by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt. But Sibelius’s immediate circle feared that he was dancing a real Waltz of Death because of his way of living. "Janne, you must give up alcohol. You must," his brother Christian wrote to him on 19th November 1903.


  

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Herbert von Karajan, 1983