Ralph Vaughn Williams on Sibelius, 1950:

It has been well said that the most original genius is the most indebted man. Sibelius has followed the direction pointed out by the great masters of the past. He is the heir of all the ages. It is for this very reason that he gives us, with a new voice, a message that has never been heard before. And his voice will remain new, through all the changes and chances of freak and fashion. The English, like the Athenians, are too fond of spending time either in telling or hearing some new thing. But we have found by bitter experience that these "new things", which at first we thought so rare and refreshing, are like the Dead Sea fruit, and turn to ashes in the mouth. Let us then shun all pernicious and enervating drugs, and turn to the pure water of Sibelius' art.

Self-conscious modernism, as I have argued before, did the world of music no favors and is not holding up. But put on some Sibelius next time someone tells you that tonality and symphonic form were dead by 1900 and had no original sounds left to utter. Try Sibelius’ 3rd with its perfect and never overbearing orchestra, clarity of argument, memorable but never obvious melodies; or the limpid, lovely otherworldliness of the 6th; or the dramatic transmutation of sonata form in the 5th culminating in final chords whose dramatic simplicity you will never forget. Great symphonic works, like most great artistry, each create their own perfect, self-contained, inimitable world, unlike any other, even unlike others from the same composer’s hand. Sibelius produced many.