Sibelius and Cigars: Discoveries from the Attic

Sibelius mentioned that he began smoking cigars as a young student at the lyceum. It is not known that Sibelius smoked cigarettes, but according to his letters, he did smoke a pipe, for example, in the mid-1890s and again in the 1940s when the wartime tobacco shortage forced him to go without cigars for several weeks. However, the composer received a special permit to bypass the rationing regulations, and cigars were eventually delivered to him from Finnish tobacco factories. Even Mannerheim remembered Sibelius with H. Upmann Selection Superior No. 50 cigars in 1941.

In the earliest surviving letter to his fiancée Aino, the future composer mentioned: “I am writing this at the dinner table, smoking a cigar and drinking soda water.” When Juhani Aho visited Sibelius, who was composing “Kullervo” at the Ullanlinna bathhouse, he noted that Sibelius lived in a room filled with tobacco smoke. Aho continued his story: “On his best working days, he forgets to eat or drink, as a strong cigar is enough to sustain his vitality.” Sibelius is depicted with a cigar in hand in Gallén’s “Symposion” painting and in countless photographs.

From 1908 to 1915, Sibelius abstained from cigars as well as alcohol, fearing a tumor in his throat. After this period, he once again enjoyed his namesake cigar “Sibelius,” the finest Havana brands, Jamaican varieties, and other favorites.

Sibelius received a 10% discount on his “own” cigars in Helsinki. He was also known elsewhere. Cigars could be sent to Ainola from the United States with the address “Jean Sibelius Europe”.

It was claimed that Sibelius could determine a cigar smoker’s character based on their favorite brand. While smoking Winston Churchill’s preferred brand, the composer remarked: “This is the kind of cigar smoked by a person for whom everything is permitted.”

In 1948, conductor Leopold Stokowski sent him 41 quality cigars and asked the composer to choose the best. Around the same time, a “Cigars for Sibelius” collection was organized in the United States. Over the following years, Sibelius received such a vast quantity of top-quality cigars that by 1952 he requested that the shipments be stopped.

After Sibelius’s death, a vast stock of cigars remained at Ainola. Many were distributed to relatives and friends, but some were left behind. In his article “Sibelius and Cigars: Discoveries from the Attic,” Olli Alho cataloged the remaining cigars in Ainola’s modern-day cigar storage. These included Havana cigars sent by the Cuban National Commission for the Propaganda and Defense of Tobacco, a cigar box from the Havana Philharmonic, Royal Jamaican Sibelius Special cigars, and Cuban brands such as Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey, Cabanás, and Medalist. Sibelius also collected, for example, El Trelles cigars made in New Orleans, El Pracos from Puerto Rico, Santa Fe cigars from California, Mayfair cigars from Florida, and so on.

Composer Joonas Kokkonen, who also met Sibelius, later wondered why Ainola no longer smelled of cigars as it did during Sibelius’s lifetime. However, for fire safety reasons, cigar smoking is no longer allowed in the house museum.