If last year was Sibelius birth's 150th anniversary - and riding this general enthusiasm we started with our festival - next month it will be the celebration of another ideal 150th birthday too. He is an Italian composer and musician and he is really close to Sibelius life and Work. His name - Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Ferruccio Busoni - seems to sum the great Italian art in all its aspects (as an homage to literature, architecture, painting, sculpture, crafts…); nethertheless his experience of life brought him always closer to a Central Europe environment than to a Mediterranean one. Since young he travelled through Europe following his parents. He was born in Empoli (as his father Ferdinando) on April, 1st 1866, but his mother was from Trieste (part of the Austrian Empire). He was educated in Wien, Graz, and Leipzig and he was always attracted by German culture. In 1888 - at the age of 22 - he was invited by Martin Wegelius, director and founder of Helsinki Conservatory, to teach there piano - thanks to the reporting of musicologist Hugo Riemann. It was difficult for the young Busoni to leave the beloved and so attractive German cultural society and live in Finland: a small country always disputed by Russia and Sweden, without an its own culture. But he had to accept: his family was going through a shaky economic situation and his new work could assure better conditions for the future.

In Helsinki he met Jean Sibelius, four months older, but still a student there. They had very little in common: Busoni with an international education and a great pianistic talent, and even if forced by artistic and economic pressures to reach an early maturity, was already teacher in a school of music; Sibelius who lost his father when he was only two and whose family though not rich, could give him a good education, showed great possibilities as composer, but had never been outside Finland. Nevertheless they were deeply attracted each other in a strong friendship where none had a role. Sibelius was not the student and Busoni was not the teacher (and truly he was never teacher of Sibelius because he attended different courses). Sibelius found in Busoni a wonderful player with a phenomenal piano technique, a flawless memory and an enormous repertoire, all things he hadn't, and that finally convinced himself he could never be a concert performer. Busoni was also a "blow of fresh air" coming directly from the German side, he admired: in fact if politically Finland was an province of eastern and western neighbors, culturally it remained one of the many provinces of Germany. As a composer, however, Busoni had nothing on him. He knew that and he did not hide that bad opinion about Busoni's works - at least in private. A certain common point among their musical ideas could be found in what later Busoni called "New Classicism", a sphere both far from late romantics emphasis and the new composers' ideas - if used only against the "old" manner. But it is always a remote contact point. One of Sibelius' most significant aspect is to avoid any fixed pattern. The only idea that covers all his production is the great inspiration that come from Nature, together with the attention to keep a simple and organic form. From the other side Busoni admired young Sibelius' skill as composer and guessed his limits in his lack of direct knowledge of the rest of contemporary cultural world. So one of Busoni's virtue in Sibelius' career was the effort to make him known, at least in Germany. He presented him to many musical associations, to Breitkopf music editor and he wrote a presentation letter for Johannes Brahms. He liked to be for Sibelius as an elder brother, who knows more about the world and its possibilities. Young Busoni during his firts period in Helsinki was not so happy. As a teacher he faced with flat programs that he tried to refresh, giving to his students Johan Sebastian Bach Well Tempered Clavier and pieces by Beethoven and Chopin instead the usual works by Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptiste Cramer. He wanted to give them a good technical level combined with a more interesting and exciting music: the results seemed very good though unexpected. As an artist, Busoni thought to be in a desert, so far from German towns with orchestras, theaters, operas (it's strange considering that now Finland is economically one of the most stable Land and one of the most interested on culture, music, architecture, design and contemporary art). But this should be not a surprise: Finland before the independence was, first for Sweden and then for Russian Empire, only as a Land of raw-materials and conquest: it was not so important spend money for culture there.

With this general aim, Busoni was very glad to find other people to talk and entertain with. So The Leskovites (Die Leskoviten) came up. Busoni referred to it as an "inspiring cabal", a sort of artistic symposium with Armas Järnefelt (Sibelius' fellow student) and his brother Eero (painter), swedish poet Adolf Paul (born as George Wiederscheim and for a while student at Conservatory too) and of course Jean Sibelius. They talked in German and the name was taken from Busoni's Newfoundland dog called "Lesko", brought from Leipzig and recurring in some letters as the only friend in his solitude. This was not an organized group with a specific program: they were just friends who wanted to enjoy each other company and talking about art and music. Each of them will follow different paths, but in a certain way Sibelius and Eero Järnefelt will be among the main promoters of the new Finnish culture (musical and artistic). Between 1894 and 1895, after he travelled through Russia and United States and he came back to Germany, Busoni wrote his Second Orchestral Suite, entitled Geharnischte ("in armor"). Each of its four movements was dedicated to the other Leskovites, as a proof of fond memories: to Jean the Introduction, to Adolf the Warrior Dance, to Armas the Funeral Monument and to Eero the Assault. [d.e.]