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Musical life in Helsinki at the end of the nineteenth century only had one orchestra, Kajnus's Helsinki Philharmonic Society, and they gave most (though not all) of Sibelius's premieres. That's an idea of how limited Sibelius's resources were at this time: only one orchestra, those players, and he knew his players individually. For instance, we know that Sibelius never wrote anything for the tuba after his Second Symphony, when the tuba player came in drunk one night and destroyed the whole thing: played wrong notes, came in at the wrong points. During the rehearsal, Sibelius understood that it was better to write a certain way than to get angry with the musicians and cause trouble for the next premiere.

So, the tuba player came in after the bottom of the fifth having tied one on and wondered why the rest of the bases weren't loaded?

What's new?

Sibelius was just pissed that the tuba player didn't ask him along, as well!