We think of Björling as being quintessentially Swedish, but his paternal grandmother Henrika Mathilda Lönnquist came from Pori in Finland and it was she who gave her grandson Johan the typically Finnish nickname Jussi. Until 1809 Finland had been under Swedish jurisdiction and even at the time of Björling's birth in 1911 the mother-tongue of most Finnish intellectuals was still Swedish. This was true of Sibelius himself, and although the composer was closely identified with the reawakening of a Finnish national identity, nearly all his songs were set to Swedish texts. Sibelius died in 1957, just two and a half years before Björling, and was the tenor's favorite living composer. As Anna-Lisa Björling wrote, it was “as if Sibelius's music and Jussi's singing sprang from the same source of inspiration.” The composer often sent Björling congratulatory telegrams after concerts and when the two finally met, in Ainola on Sibelius's eighty-sixth birthday in 1951, the tenor was given a photograph dedicated to “the genius, the great singer, Jussi Björling.”

“Svarta rosor” (op. 36 no. 1)

January 30, 1940: New York, Manhattan Center

Harry Ebert, pf.

Naxos 8.110789

June 20, 1951: Helsinki, University Auditorium

Finnish Radio Orchestra, cond. Nils-Eric Fougstedt

April 11, 1952: New York, Manhattan Center

Frederick Schauwecker, pf.

Testament SBT 1427

October 3, 1952: Stockholm, Concert Hall

Swedish Radio Orchestra, cond. Sten Frykberg

Naxos 8.111083-85

September 24, 1955: New York, Carnegie Hall

Frederick Schauwecker, pf.

RCA 88697748922