This recording contains five works Jean Sibelius wrote on commission for festive events, including his famous Finlanda, Andante festivo and Academic March, as well as world première recordings of two academic cantatas, performed by the Finnish Philharmonic Choir and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leif Segerstam.
As acting music teacher of the Helsinki University, Sibelius was commissioned to write and conduct the Cantata for the Conferment Ceremony 1894, to a festive poem by Kasimir Leino. Its second movement contains soloist roles performed by soprano Soile Isokoski and baritone Jaakko Kortekangas.

Sibelius’s second cantata, to a text by Paavo Cajander, had not been heard since its first performance at the Finnish celebration in honour of the coronation of Nicholas II (as Tsar of Russia and Grand Duke of Finland) in 1896.