Written in 1892, "En saga" takes its place at the beginning of Jean Sibelius's symphonic poems, and is also the first orchestral work by the Finnish composer to have won a lasting place in the concert repertoire. After ten years and many successful performances, Sibelius was still unsatisfied with his work, which ultimately led him to radically shorten and revise the score. From then on, the revised version published in 1903 was the only valid one.

The early version was left unprinted, and th...