1919 was a veritable "symphonic" year in the oeuvre of Jean Sibelius: he revised his 5th Symphony, began the 6th and, at the same time, sketched a "Fantasia sinfonica" from which the one-movement 7th the last surviving symphony was to evolve by early 1924. Although the score and parts were printed only after a number of performances, the material was faulty and only half-heartedly corrected during the composer's lifetime. The reception of the 7th Symphony by the contemporary press was mixed. Sibelius saw himself between the fronts of modern developments and conservative criticism, which wanted him to play the role of a tonal Rock of Gibraltar amidst the dissonant chaos of the times. It is partly for this reason that the Finnish composer then chose the path of silence and later destroyed the manuscript of his 8th Symphony