7, is a five-movement symphonic work for soprano,[a] baritone, male choir, and orchestra written from 1891–1892 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Movements I, II, and IV are instrumental, whereas III and V feature sung text from Runos XXXV–VI of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic.

The piece tells the story of the tragic hero Kullervo, with each movement depicting an episode from his ill-fated life: first, an introduction that establishes the psychology of the titular character; second, a haunting "lullaby with variations" that portrays his unhappy childhood; third, a dramatic dialogue between soloists and chorus in which the hero unknowingly seduces his long-lost sister; fourth, a lively scherzo in which Kullervo seeks redemption on the battlefield; and fifth, a funereal choral finale in which he returns to the spot of his incestuous crime and, guilt-ridden, takes his life by falling on his sword.

Sibelius's triumph, however, was due in part to extra-musical considerations: by setting the Finnish-language Kalevala and evoking—but not directly quoting—the melody and rhythm of rune singing, he had given voice to the political struggle for Finland's independence from Imperial Russia.

Kullervo would not receive its next complete performance until 12 June 1958, nine months after Sibelius's death, when his son-in-law Jussi Jalas resurrected it for a recorded, private concert in Helsinki.

[7] The rehearsals were also a challenge: the musicians, the majority of whom were Germans, not only viewed Sibelius as a neophyte but also had little understanding of the national heritage upon which Kullervo drew—a few of them even laughed derisively when they saw their parts[8] and when the soloists sang.

[9] Speaking a mix of Finnish, Swedish, and German as needed, Sibelius gradually won over his performers through the force of his personality;[8] as one vocalist recalled, "We doubted that we could learn our parts ... [but] the young composer himself would come and hold special rehearsals with us.

[6] Kullervo premiered on 28 April 1892 at a sold-out concert audience in the Ceremonial Hall of the Imperial Alexander's University of Finland, Sibelius—initially pale and trembling—conducting.

[11] Although the orchestra overpowered Ojanperä and Achté,[8] the performance was a success: enthusiastic applause erupted after each movement and, at the end, Kajanus presented Sibelius with a blue-and-white-ribboned laurel wreath that quoted prophetically lines 615–616 of Runo L of The Kalevala: "That way now will run the future / On the new course, cleared and ready".

)[17] Around this time, Sibelius mailed the autograph manuscript of Kullervo to his friend, the Swedish playwright Adolf Paul, in Vienna; they had hoped to interest the Austrian conductor Felix Weingartner in the piece, but nothing came of the plan.

When searches of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Institute libraries proved unsuccessful,[22] a "wholly mystif[ied]" Kajanus began to worry that "some crazy manuscript collector [might] have purloined the score".

[22] Around 1916, Sibelius deposited the manuscript in Helsinki University Library for safekeeping, only to sell it to the Kalevala Society [fi] in the early 1920s in order to address his dire financial situation.

A decade later, Cecil Gray, Sibelius's first English-language biographer and an advocate in Britain for his music, reported that Sibelius had told him Kullervo would likely remain unrevised: He confesses to being not entirely satisfied with the work as it stands, and while admitting that he might conceivably be able to remedy the more outstanding defects by rewriting it here and there he is nevertheless disinclined to do so, being of the opinion that the faults and imperfections of a work are often so intimately bound up with its very nature, that an attempt to rectify them without impairing it as a whole must almost inevitably fail ...

[34] Nevertheless, in early 1935, as Finland prepared to celebrate the centenary of the Kalevala's publication, Armas Väisänen—the ethnomusicologist and general secretary of the festival—secured Sibelius's blessing to have Kullervo's third movement performed under the baton of Georg Schnéevoigt.

(Väisänen had taken Schnéevoigt to the Helsinki University Library to examine the autograph manuscript; the conductor did not find Kullervo to be on par with Sibelius's mature works, and was only willing to conduct Movement III.

[9] However, in the spring of 1957, just months before his death, Sibelius arranged for bass and orchestra the baritone's concluding monologue—Kullervo's Lament (Kullervon valitus)—from Movement III.

Borg premiered Kullervo's Lament on 14 June in Helsinki during Sibelius Week, Jalas conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In a review for The Milwaukee Journal, Roxane Orgill faulted Sibelius as a "longwinded conversationalist" and dismissed Kullervo as having "wander[ed] aimlessly ... it could be argued that the score should never have been dusted off".

[42] On 13 April, Schermerhorn's crew (albeit with the West Minster Men's Choir substituting) played Kullervo at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Yet ... it has the unique Sibelius sound, starkly colorful, darkly sonorous ... and the melodic lines have a flavorsome folklike tinge that makes them quite beautiful".

[48][l] A critical edition of Kullervo, edited by the musicologist Glenda Dawn Goss, arrived in 2005; her work is based on the autograph manuscript, as well as the original orchestral and choral parts (preserved at the Sibelius Museum in Turku) and piano-vocal arrangements of Movements III and V that Sibelius used for rehearsals (preserved at the National Library of Finland in Helsinki, to which his estate transferred in the 1980s).

[50][51] Second, in 1891 and early 1892, Sibelius continually labeled Kullervo a "symphony" ("symfoni") in letters to Aino Järnefelt, Kajanus, and Wegelius,[52] before settling on "symphonic poem" ("symfonisk dikt") for the April premiere—a title that newspaper advertisements[m] and program shared.

Sibelius likely "shrank" from the former classification due both to Kullervo's programmatic nature, as well as its deployment of a hybrid structure in which a "quasi-operatic ... scena" essentially 'interrupts' an up-to-that-point 'normal' work for orchestra.

[55][56] The symphonic poem appellation has struck many commentators as ill-fitting; an early example is that, after examining the score in 1915, Furuhjelm re-conceptualized Kullervo as an "epic drama" in two acts (Movements III and V), with two preludes (I and II) and an intermezzo (IV).

The coexistence of these two formal structures serves to give the work some of its inner tension and its contrast ... Sibelius succeeds in holding these diverse elements together remarkably well: in the finale he recalls themes from earlier movements and so effectively completes the symphonic cycle.

[54]Similarly, Layton's verdict is that although in Kullervo Sibelius "embraces concepts that, strictly speaking, lie outside the range of the normal classical symphony"—such as Movement III—he does so "without sacrificing [the] essentially organic modes of procedure" that characterize the symphonic process.

In an effort to "gain balance" between soloists and orchestra, Berglund—on the "valuable" advice of Jalas—made alterations to the score, correcting what he had perceived to be Sibelius's "impractical orchestration" and "some passages [that were] clumsy or even impossible to play".

[citation needed] Writing for The Musical Times, Hugh Ottaway applauded the recording for its "strong sense of occasion", noting "Berglund's enthusiasm has brought a brilliant, dedicated performance ... [that] could well be a revelation.

In terms of superlatives, two other Finnish conductors, Leif Segerstam and Osmo Vänskä, as well as Britain's Sir Colin Davis, have since joined Berglund as having recorded the symphony twice.