From 1809 to 1917, the territory we know as Finland was called the Grand Duchy of Finland and was classified as “an autonomous state ruled by the Russian Empire.” Autonomous, my foot. The overlords’ determination to suppress the Finnish language and other expressions of Finnish identity was a fact of daily life. But the music of Jean Sibelius spoke to his compatriots in an idiom that transcended words. He called his Second Symphony, which culminates in triumph, a confession of his soul. The Finnish public embraced it as the “Symphony of Independence,” while the American composer and music critic Virgil Thomson blew it off as “vulgar, self-indulgent, and provincial beyond all description.” (What did he know?) Dalia Stasevska, a Finnish maestro in increasing global demand, juxtaposes the Second with Einojuhani Raatavaara’s lean, spectral Cantus Arcticus (1972), which incorporates birdsong from the extreme North to haunting effect. Also on tap: the neglected Black composer Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater (1951), for contralto and string orchestra. (For more Sibelius from Stasevska this month, consult our listing for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.) —Matthew Gurewitsch