In the late 1920s, at the very height of his powers, Jean Sibelius abruptly and enigmatically put down his pen.For three decades until his death in 1957 at the age of 91, he was to produce virtually no new work - living out the rest of his life shrouded in silent mystery in the depths of the forests, north of Helsinki.

Or did he? In this week's Composer Of The Week, Donald MacLeod explores and explodes the mythology cloaking the last decades of Sibelius' life.a period not quite as 'silent' as legend might have us believe.

Today's episode outlines the background behind Sibelius' last, and perhaps greatest, major orchestral work, his extraordinary, terrifying tone poem Tapiola - as well as an unexpected pair of solemn and reverent church antiphons.not at all what you might expect from this master of orchestral colour. Show less