[7] Today, Sibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music.
This is because Sibelius curated the collection according to his ever-changing assessment of his oeuvre (highly self-critical, he became especially ambivalent later in life towards his early period),[12] promoting works to or demoting them from the catalogue and filling the resulting vacancies without a strict regard for compositional chronology.
[13][h] Among the pieces that at one point held, but later lost, a place on Sibelius's opus list are numerous large-scale works from the 1880s and 1890s, including his only opera, three cantatas, a melodrama, and several multi-movement compositions for chamber ensembles.
[17][i] Sibelius also demoted his first two orchestral compositions, the Overture in E major and Ballet Scene, which were originally intended as movements in a symphony before the composer abandoned the project.
[24][j] As Sibelius's international reputation grew, the major German firms came calling, and he relished not only the prestige but also the opportunity to free himself from the cumbersome domestic publishing process.
Ever in debt, Sibelius churned out undistinguished, "bread-and-butter" violin duos and piano pieces for R. E. Westerlund and A. E. Lindgren,[26] each of whom lacked the means to print the works but viewed them as shrewd investments.
The institution began in earnest its mission to acquire the composer's literary estate in 1970, with the purchase—from the London auction house Sotheby's—of manuscripts that had once belonged to A. E. Lindgren and, thereafter, R. E.
[33] The gift more than doubled Sibelius's catalogue: among the nearly 2,000 manuscripts were not only drafts, thematic sketches, and page proofs related to known compositions, but also hitherto unknown juvenilia.
[35] A third notable acquisition occurred shortly after Kilpeläinen published his book, when in 1997 the National Library obtained manuscripts that had belonged to Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
[40] Began in 1996, the JSW is projected at 52–60 volumes and will cover all of Sibelius's completed compositions (and arrangements), many of which remain in manuscript and, therefore, will receive first editions.
[43] Released from 2007 to 2011, this 13-volume series, which sought to record every surviving "note [Sibelius] put down to paper", comprises 80+ hours of music over 68 discs and also includes the original versions of works the composer revised.