Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957)
Symphony No. 5 in Eb major, Op. 82
I. Tempo molto moderato - Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto)
II. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto
III. Allegro molto

In 1914, when Europe was unwittingly descending into the madness of the First World War, the 50 year old Sibelius was having ideas for a fifth symphony. His previous symphony had shocked listeners by its bleakness, veering into atonality at times, but while the fourth casts shadows into his later music, he never again plumbed quite the same depths of despair.

He worked on the new symphony over the winter of 1914 and spring of 1915. Two diary entries are of interest. “April 10th - Spent the evening with the symphony. The disposition of the themes: with al/its mystery and fascination, this is the important thing. It is as if God the Father had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven’s floor and asked me to put them back as they were. Perhaps that is a good definition of composition. Perhaps not. How should I know?” This gives a profound insight into how Sibelius saw the process of composition, also into his own nature (especially his self-doubt) and into his music. Two weeks later he was on a country walk when a flock of wild swans flew low overhead. “One of my greatest experiences! My God, what beauty” he wrote, and these words are followed by the horn theme of the last movement. It is hard to distinguish the mystic from the nature-lover in Sibelius.

By the late summer the symphony was finished and it was first performed in Helsinki in December 1915, with Sibelius conducting. The audience and critics loved it, with one calling it “true musical magic” and “a masterpiece”. The only person not totally satisfied was the composer. Sibelius re-worked the symphony extensively during 1916, telescoping the first two movements into one, and making many other changes. This revised version was first performed a year to the day after the (first) premiere, in December 1916, again with the composer conducting. Again the public loved it, but again Sibelius wasn’t satisfied. Other work intervened, and it wasn’t until 1919 that the composer was finally happy with it, and this 1919 version, first performed in November that year, is the version we have today.

What Sibelius was working towards was a symphony where all the themes are subtly connected, and where the symphony is perhaps “about” the discovery of these connections. (In fact it goes deeper than that: the music of the 5th, 6th and 7th symphonies and Tapiola are all inter-connected as well.) He was also exploring new sonorities for the orchestra, and in these later works Sibelius conjures some extraordinary sounds from a normal orchestra. This is a1l the more remarkable because he never uses percussion beyond timpani and usually a woodwind section that would be familiar to Mozart.

The first movement opens with a soft horn call above a timpani roll — one of the germs of the whole symphony. The woodwind append an oscillating pattern to the motto and it becomes a second theme. A third theme appears starkly in the wind above a rustling pattern in the strings who after a big climax have a compressed variant of the same theme. The fourth symphony casts its shadow in a wailing bassoon theme (marked “lugubrious”) accompanied by sinister mutterings in the strings, but eventually the music heaves itself out of this half-tone world into a lighter and more joyous one. The tunes are closely related to those in the first movement - a unity the composer emphasises in removing the boundary between the movements. This allegro quickens gradually through its course until by its end the joy almost has a hint of hysteria about it.

The second and third movements chart a similar course to the first movement: a journey from shadow to liqht. The second movement is a set of variations, though where one ends and the next begins is very bard to say. The theme is a long winding one played first alternately by plucked strings and flute. It is hard even to say where this theme starts and stops. The variations are sometimes brisk, sometimes passionate, and one is troubled by dark threats from the brass. The ending is in no way final, but just a slightly disconcerting shrug of the shoulders.

The last movement gets quickly under way and soon the “swan theme” is heard in the horns, Notice how it is supported by the same theme in the basses played three times slower, and soon it supports a sustained and passionate tune in the woodwind and cellos. The change from E-flat to C major is magnificent! The music subsides and then becomes very mysterious on muted strings in the remote key of G flat. The swan theme is head in spectral outline, and the wind gently intone the sustained theme. The tempo slows, and both themes combine as the music works its way seriously and intensely bock to its E flat home. Upon arrival the tempo picks up a little for the final chords, unique and extraordinary — six resonant hammer blows, separated by enormous, echoing silences.