The Berlin concert, which occurred a fortnight after Robert Kajanus had premiered the revised version in Helsinki on 2 November, finally brought Sibelius the German breakthrough he had long desired.

[6] Sibelius routinely declined to state a program, although in the 1930s, he conceded that, if one must find an inspiration, the tone poem owed its nature not to The Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, but rather to Iceland's Eddas.

By the 1940s, however, Sibelius had reverted to his previous position, describing the work instead as "the expression of a certain state of mind"—one with an unspecified, "painful" autobiographical component—for which "all literary interpretations [were therefore] totally alien".

[7] Critics have largely praised En saga as a masterpiece of "astonishing power and originality" that, stylistically, exhibits Sibelius's "personal brand of musical primitivism".

[11] In 1902, the Italian composer, conductor, and pianist, Ferruccio Busoni, began a series of concerts (eventually 12 in all, from 1902 to 1909) with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Philharmonie's Beethovensaal (Beethoven Hall).

I watch with the greatest delight your German successes which I foresaw as a certainty.Sibelius seems to have countered with a choral work (possibly the recently completed cantata The Origin of Fire), since Busoni later replied, "Unfortunately I cannot give myself up to the uncertainty and inconvenience caused by singers ...

[c] Up against the November deadline, Sibelius raced to complete the revisions in a month, and to save time, he likely reused pages from the original manuscript that required little alteration.

[17] The Berlin concert was indeed an important event for Sibelius: not only would it mark just the second time he had conducted abroad,[d] but it would also give him the opportunity to present personally his art to a discerning Central European audience.

[17] A few days later, the stakes became even clearer: the Berlin critics savaged the first of Busoni's concerts on 8 November, the program of which included selections from Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, the Overture to Camille Saint-Saëns's opera Les Barbares, and Christian Sinding's Rondo Infinito.

[19] Sibelius was under constant stress: during the journey to Germany, he labored over the orchestral parts, many of which contained copy errors; upon arrival, he fumed over being second on the program and was annoyed that the promised rehearsals had both been scheduled for 13 November.

The creative origins of En saga remain somewhat uncertain, although Sibelius's statements to Ekman and Furuhjelm indicate the piece may have evolved from sketches for a septet or octet the composer had begun in 1890–91.

On 14 June 2003, six musicians from the Lahti Symphony Orchestra joined Barrett (on clarinet) to premiere the septet at the Brahmssaal (Brahms Hall) of the Musikverein in Vienna, the city where Sibelius claimed to have composed his own (lost) pre-En saga septet/octet; the Austrian-Finnish Friendship Society sponsored the performance, while the Finnish Embassy hosted a reception after the concert.

Many reviews note the conspicuous absence of the tone poem's brass and percussion, although one of the performers, flautist Ilari Lehtinen, has argued the septet compensates by making "the intimate aspects of the work sound more personal and more heart-rending".

[citation needed] Writing for Fanfare, Steven Ritter has praised the septet as "remarkable", noting that although "acute listeners will miss the brass and all the pomp and beauty of orchestral majesty that we associate with Sibelius", Barrett's arrangement "has much to offer and loses little atmosphere".

[citation needed] Carl Bauman, writing for the American Record Guide, on the other hand, has argued the musical material "doesn’t fare nearly as well here as it does in its orchestration".

[citation needed] En saga is one of Sibelius's more commonly recorded tone poems, although it trails more famous compositions such as The Swan of Tuonela and Finlandia.

Gramophone's James McCarthy characterized the record as perspective-changing, noting that the original versions of the pieces provided "fascinating material for comparison" and allowed "a glimpse of two familiar masterpieces in the making".