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I heard something about Sibelius writing something compleatly different from the concerto we know and some editor took the last 5 minutes out and put his own ending on it, is that true?

Heh... I never heard of that... but hey I'm not particularly familiar with Sibelius so I shouldn't be the one to say

Its weird because I have heard a recording where the violinst stops on the really high G after the cadenza

This is the response from a Sibelius expert friend of mine in Finland regarding the situation:

There are TWO versions of the violin concerto.

Both can be found on the BIS series of Complete Sibelius. The earlier (1st version) of 1903 (I think) is much wider... much longer... a lot of 'extra' material.. the final version (2nd) of 1905 I personally find PERFECT. The material is in a very logic form - all the extra stuff is gone.

well.. you know... Sibelius made revised versions of some other works as well.

these include 5th symphony (three versions), En Saga (two versions). In each cases, the works became shorter - 5th symphony had 4 movements, 3rd version just three.

Also, the 7th symphony was originally to have several movements... now, as we know it, we have just one movement.

Regarding the published... Sibelius was extremely self-critical.. and took all criticism seriously.. So, he banned two movement of his Lemminkainen Legends (because of a finnish critic's opinion) and Kullervo Symphony

He wrote and destroyed 8th symphony three times - because he was so self-critical and afraid of critics - already before-hand !! 8th symphony was never found..

does anyone have a copy of that one?