Debussy called the sea "Mysterious, alluring, menacing, layered," in a letter to his publisher. He had just started La mer, music that paints the sea in all its elusiveness. At the same time, in the fall of 1903, and 1,500 miles away, Sibelius was working on his Violin Concerto – together with La mer one of the most enchanting works of the early twentieth century: layered, alluring and mysterious.