Sakari Oramo conducts "Finlandia"

Finland was part of the Russian Empire, Nikolai II was not the worst dictator the world has seen, he and the entire imperial family loved Finland very much, Finland was the first country in Europe to introduce voting rights for women. Also remember one of Czar Nicholas generals was the great Mannerheim.

We fought an independent war for freedom against the Soviet Union bent on annexing Finland into their oh so loving empire.

This song is a touchy subject to a lot of Finns, mostly because the official national anthem is a rather bland one by a german composer, and not this good song by a finnish one. I suppose we have only history to blame for that. Nationalistic uprising has always been frowned upon after we (axis powers) lost the war against Russia. We retained our independence though. It was a war for indepence. We fought the germans out of the north too in Lapinsota.

Sibelius was in fear for his life when the russians over ran his town the eastman school of music in the usa wanted him to run the school but he was too firmly entrenchetched in finland so they hired howard hanson this conductor oramo is one of the most intense ever and I have seen ormandy and beecham conduct this in person .

@Simpson654 German composer?????? He was a Swedishspeaking Finn, Runeberg!

I would usually agree with you about this explanation, but if you watch the orchestra (or wind section) playing, their actions are exactly in time with the music. If you watch at 2:30 you can clearly see that the musicians are just lagging behind the conductor, albeit in an organized fashion. I would attribute this to conductor / orchestra style. Either way, the music comes out very effectively.

If the oppression was severe, how did he get the work performed? A really authoritarian regime would have banned it!

Nationalism in music was current end of 19th century practice in many countries, including America and England (hardly to be classified as oppressed countries).

Most composers compose...to earn money ;p

I didn't mention anything about the severity of oppression, but just that you know, in Feb 1899 Nikolai II signed a manifest, that narrowed the autonomy of Finnish Grand Duchy. This naturally caused protest and cultural circles supported this with their art. There was cencorship, but russians didn't get quite everything.. Sibelius made Finlandia SPECIFICALLY for a play, whose last scene described awakening of Finland.

Quite frankly, I'm offended by a frenchman trying to teach me my own history!

It is true that each country teaches its history in a particular way.
I'm not French! :)
I spoke about nationalism in music not being confined to Finland and not necessarily being used for propaganda purposes.
Verdi was more subtle about it. :)