Country-scenery (Allegretto), 2. Serenade. Evening in Spring (Andantino), 3. In the Summer (Vivace). Completed in 1929; originally op. 117; concept (“!Do not publish”). Premiered in Lahti on December 8, 1990 (John Storgårds, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä).
One of Jean Sibelius’s last entirely new and completed orchestral works was the light suite for violin and string orchestra. He sent it to the publisher with the opus number 117, but when no agreement was reached, the composer did not bother to improve the somewhat sketchy piece. “Do not publish,” he wrote on the manuscript. He ultimately did not want to assign the work the opus number 117.

The opus was unearthed in the 1980s and considered for Cho-Liang Lin and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Sony record. However, the suite was not deemed worthy of recording at that time, and Lin had to settle for playing one of the best recordings of the violin concerto. In 1990, the piece premiered in Lahti, with John Storgårds playing as the soloist.

The suite is light and uncomplicated music. Sibelius intended it for the U.S. market and unusually gave it English titles.