Moreover, construction on Sibelius's new home in Järvenpää (subsequently named Ainola after his wife, Aino) was nearing completion and the family was preparing to move in at the end of the month.

[4] The work consists of three movements: Musically, Robert Layton argues that Kyllikki "speaks much the same harmonic language as the Second Symphony and the Violin Concerto".

[5] The Sibelius biographer Andrew Barnett, too, emphasizes the suite's "Kalevala romanticism"—indeed, the "end of a stylistic" in the composer's output for piano.

[6] Layton, however, dismisses Kyllikki as "on the whole ... an unsuccessful piece with few attractions ... the actual paint writing is, by the exhalted standards Sibelius himself set elsewhere, limited in resource".

[7] The American pianist David Rubenstein made the world premiere studio recording of Kyllikki in 1971 for the Musical Heritage Society.