Complete Works (JSW) VII/3

The present volume contains four works for choir and orchestra that were composed and premiered at the turn of the 20th century. The works in the volume are arranged according to their opus numbers, though this does not fully reflect their chronology: Impromptu (Op. 19) for female choir and orchestra, composed and premiered in 1902; Sandels (Op. 28) for male choir and orchestra, composed in 1898 and premiered in 1900; Snöfrid (Op. 29) for reciter, mixed choir, and orchestra, composed and premiered in 1900; and Islossningen i Uleå älv (Op. 30) for reciter, male choir, and orchestra, composed and premiered in 1899.

Sibelius planned to revise all four works, but he only revised Impromptu in 1910 and Sandels in 1915. Both versions of these two works appear in the volume. All four works are settings of poems by Swedish-speaking authors, namely Viktor Rydberg (1828–1895), Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877) and Zacharias Topelius (1818–1898).