Achim Breiling asks:

>I read several times now that Sibelius had completed his 8th Symphony but
>destroyed it in a rage of frustration. Is this true or a tale?

The best (multi-volume) biography of Sibelius I know, by Erik Tawastsjerna,
says that this author put the question to Sibelius directly, in the
presence of Sibelius' wife, who turned to the composer and told him to tell
the truth, that there was no 8th Symphony.  It is likely that Sibelius
worked on such a symphony for a long time without producing results that
satisfied him and then destroyed his sketches.  How "complete" these were
will probably never be known.  I'd say a symphony is not complete until the
composer says it is.

Jim Tobin