"Sibelius wrote a very large mass of highly genial and attractive music. I'm thinking of all those delightful suites, symphonic poems like En saga and Pohjola's Daughter and that rather strange composition - very strange indeed - The Oceanides, which, incidentally, the composer has asked me to record. I don't know why: I shall ask him one day why he asked me to do this very special thing. Of course I shall do it - naturally." - Sir Thomas Beecham