Symphony No. 5

Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 was first performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on 26 March 1924 led by the composer. It has been performed on 66 occasions (+ 10 radio performances) by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Carl Garaguly conducted Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in his last performance with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on 26 October 1982. It was the only time he conducted that symphony with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 5 E-flat major op 82 (1915/1919)

Tempo molto moderato. Largamente. Allegro moderato. Presto. Più presto
Andante mosso, quasi allegretto
Allegro molto

Duration approx. 30 minutes

During the summer of 1914, after having returned from America where he conducted the premiere of his tone poem The Oceanides, op 73 (1914) at the Norfolk festival, Sibelius began work on his Fifth symphony. The first diary entry where he comments on his work is from July 25th, 1914: ”I have found a wonderful theme!”

These were uneasy times. A few days after the entry about the ”wonderful theme” he writes: ”War declared, Austria–Serbia.” He understood that his German publisher would no longer be able to send him his royalties, since Finland at that time was a duchy belonging to the Russian empire and in conflict with Germany. He was desperate: ”I am totally without money.” He was forced to write piano pieces and other ”incidental music” to provide for his family and cover his debts.

But there were also musical reasons why the work with the symphony developed slowly: he could not get the form right. All while he ”smithed” his themes (a metaphor he continually used) he wavered between Liszt’s concept of the symphonic poem or fantasia and a pure symphony. The fantasia represented the freedom of the mind, while a symphony meant subordinating oneself and being loyal to a tradition with much stricter rules.

The Fifth symphony developed over the years from four movements in the first version to the final version’s three movements. Six months before the premiere, in an attack of uncertainty, he planned to cut both the second and third movements and turn it into a ”Symphony in one movement,” ”Symphonic fantasy,” or ”Fantasia sinfonica I”.

The first movement, Tempo molto moderato. Largamente. Allegro moderato. Presto. Più presto, was born from a fusion of two initially separate movements. The result is an original transformation of the sonata form that had never before been done. The three parts of a sonata form– exposition, development, and recapitulation– are still there, but their scope and internal relationships deviate radically from the usual. The exposition and development consist of three relatively short ”rotations” (a term coined by the American music researcher James Hepokoski), which lead to quite an extensive recapitulation, ”recapitulatory space”, with a scherzo-like character. The high point of the movement is reached when the slow and gloomy section almost imperceptibly turns into a lithe and lively scherzo that steadily grows faster and more excitable.

After the eventful first movement, the second Andante mosso, quasi allegretto, feels almost naïve. At the same time it serves as a link between the outer movements. In seven ”rotations”, the most important parts of the Finale are presented: the first theme in the woodwinds, and the ”swan theme,” here with pizzicato strings. The movement is a kind of ”Sampo,” the mystical tool in the Kalevala that creates wealth and welfare for all who hold it. 

The triumphant Finale, Allegro molto, contains an especially beautiful example of what Sibelius meant when he wrote in his diary on April 10, 1915: ”About the evening of the Symphony. Disposition of themes. This important work, with its secrecy and joy. As if the God Father had thrown bits of mosaic from the gulf of the heavens and asked me to figure out how they had been put together. Perhaps a good definition of ’composing..’ What do I know!” The movement’s two basic themes, one in a stepwise motion in the woodwinds doubled by the cello and the other moving in larger and larger intervals in the horns (the ”swan theme”), are heard one on top of the other simultaneously throughout, while the latter is accompanied by itself three times more slowly.

The first version of the Fifth symphony was premiered on Sibelius’ 50th birthday on December 8, 1915, the second version exactly one year later, and the final version on November 24, 1919.

— Ilkka Oramo
English translation: George Kentros