Einar Englund was the first major representative of the “lost generation” – young men who had sacrificed their youth to the war – among Finnish composers, and the first seriously to challenge the status of Sibelius and Madetoja. The Second Symphony is acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century.

“Music on paper is nothing! It does not exist! Notes are strange hieroglyphics, notated musical thoughts that have been created in the human brain. Music does not exist until the moment the musician makes those mystical signs come alive and turn into sound. As soon as the sound stops, the music no longer exists – it reverts to strange hieroglyphics. To silence!”