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Finlandia was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a protest against increasing censorship
by the Russian Empire. It was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau
depicting episodes from Finnish history. It premiered July 2, 1900 in Helsinki.

The text that originally accompanied this music hailed the progress of the Finns during the 19th
century and included these words: “The powers of darkness menacing Finland have not succeeded
in their terrible threats. Finland awakes!” Finlandia is considered highly effective music that serves as
a rousing patriotic statement. Over time, it has almost become Finland’s second national anthem even
though, because of censorship restrictions, it did not get known under its present title until Finland
gained independence following World War I.

The work opens with the brass intoning dark, savage chords almost ominously as they evoke the
“powers of darkness.” Subsequently the music becomes variously reflective, jubilant, and militant,
over time resolving into the spirited and purposeful. The hymn-like theme is first sounded within a
quiet atmosphere; by the work’s conclusion, it becomes a strong and powerful statement of triumph.

Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Op. 45 Amy Beach
(1867 — 1944)

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (Mrs. H.H.A. Beach) was the first American woman to succeed as
a composer of large-scale works of serious music; she was celebrated during her lifetime as the
foremost woman composer of the United States. Her mother, a gifted pianist and singer, provided
Beach’s first exposure to piano. Beach’s early feats included improvising duets before the age of
two, playing by ear in full harmony at four, and giving public recitals at seven. She taught herself
composition by studying the great masters. After her family moved to Boston, she studied with
experienced professional teachers interested in helping her develop her talents. She made her
Boston debut as a pianist in 1883 at sixteen; in 1884, she played Chopin’s F minor Concerto with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, which had been organized only three years earlier.

She learned orchestration and fugue techniques by translating Berlioz and François-Auguste
Gevaert’s musical treatises. In 1885, she married H. H. A. Beach, a distinguished Boston surgeon
and Harvard professor, slightly older than her father. Following the mores of Victorian society, he
restricted her concert appearances, although he allowed and even encouraged her composing.

Beach completed over 300 works, including the Gaelic Symphony, a Piano Concerto, a large- scale
Mass, numerous songs, choral works, and many other compositions for chorus, including Festival
Jubilate, commissioned for the dedication of the Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1897.
She gathered numerous honors and was twice received at the White House. Many of her works
were premièred by major orchestras and often marked the first times these orchestras had performed
music by a female composer.
Much of Beach’s work shows the influence of American late Romantic composers Horatio Parker,
Edward MacDowell, Arthur Foote, and George Chadwick, but her music is also indebted to that of
Brahms and Debussy. The majority of her compositions, however, predominantly display her own
idiomatic style and her gift for melody.

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