Now, years later, I have found several sets of caches along this bike trail. Now, they are mostly gone and Guardrail10 and I are replenishing them. He has a few series and I have a few series along the trail. This bunch is dedicated to Sibelius.
Sibelius
His music is steeped in the myths and the natural marvels of his homeland and helped articulate the struggle for Finnish independence, but it is his seven symphonies that confirmed his place as one of the most original symphonic composers since Beethoven.
Violin Concerto
This is the only concerto that Sibelius wrote, though he composed several other smaller-scale pieces for solo instrument and orchestra, including the six Humoresques for violin and orchestra.
One noteworthy feature of the work is the way in which an extended cadenza for the soloist takes on the role of the development section in the sonata form first movement. Donald Tovey described the final movement as a "polonaise for polar bears". However, he was not intending to be derogatory, as he went on: "In the easier and looser concerto forms invented by Mendelssohn and Schumann I have not met a more original, a more masterly, and a more exhilarating work than the Sibelius violin concerto".
Much of the violin writing is purely virtuosic, but even the most showy passages alternate with the melodic. This concerto is generally symphonic in scope, departing completely from the often lighter, "rhythmic" accompaniments of many other concertos.