Arioso, for voice and orchestra, op. 3

"Arioso", Op. 3, is an art song for vocal soloist (typically soprano) and accompaniment written in 1911 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who appears to have worked simultaneously on two versions of the song: one with strings and the other with piano. The piece, which is a setting of the Swedish-language poem Flickans årstider ("The Maiden's Seasons") by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Sibelius's favorite poet, premiered on 18 September 1913 in Helsinki with the Finnish soprano Ida Ekman as soloist, accompanied by her husband, Karl Ekman, on piano. The next year in Turku on 30 March, the version of the piece for string orchestra was first performed, again with Ekman as soloist; her husband this time conducted the Turku Orchestral Society.