Sibelius has been the dominating figure in the history of Finnish music - but this week Donald Macleod is looking at other composers who have contributed to making this one of the most musically active small nations in the world. Linguistically and geographically isolated, Finland has learnt to communicate with the wider world through music, but its classical tradition was founded relatively recently, in the 1880s. With the help of Tim Howell, author of 'After Sibelius', Donald explores the work of Sibelius' contemporaries as Finland was emerging as a State, and some of those who took on the reins afterwards...

In today's programme he looks at the first figures in Finnish music: Bernhard Crusell and Frederick Pacius - 'the German father of Finnish music', and one of the latest: Magnus Lindberg. Show less