Overview
Introduction
The Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major (WAB 105) of Anton Bruckner was written in 1875–1876, with minor changes over the next two years. It came at a time of trouble and disillusion for the composer: a lawsuit, from which he was exonerated, and a reduction in salary. Dedicated to Karl von Stremayr, education minister in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the symphony has at times been nicknamed the “Tragic,” the “Church of Faith” or the “Pizzicato”; Bruckner himself referred to it as the “Fantastic” without applying this or any other name formally.
First performances
The Fifth was first performed in public on two pianos by Joseph Schalk and Franz Zottmann on 20 April 1887 in the Bösendorfersaal in Vienna.
Structure
The symphony is not outwardly a work of storm and stress, but it is a piece of “working out,” one of Bruckner’s most contrapuntally intricate works. There are four movements; the climax comes unusually late, in the chorale at the end of the last movement, posing a huge interpretive challenge:
- Introduction (Adagio) — Allegro. B-flat major.
- Adagio. Sehr langsam. (Very slowly) D minor.
- Scherzo. Molto vivace D minor.
- Finale (Adagio) — Allegro moderato. B-flat major.
Movements 1, 2 and 4 begin with pizzicato strings, hence the above-mentioned nickname. The pizzicato figures are symmetrical in the sense that the outer movements share one figure while the middle movements share another.
- Jochum’s thoughts
Noted Bruckner conductor Eugen Jochum wrote in detail about the symphony’s interpretive challenges, noting that, in contrast to the Seventh Symphony, “the climax … is not merely in the last movement but at the very end, in the chorale … . The first, second and third movements seem almost a … vast preparation … . The preparatory character applies especially to the first movement [whose] introduction … is a large-scale foundation … destined to bear the weight of all four movements.” As evidence, he detailed the way … the introduction’s thematic materials function in later movements, and said the interpreter “must direct everything towards the Finale and its ending … and continually keep something in reserve for the conclusion.”
Jochum also detailed tempo and its relationships and modifications as an element in achieving overall direction and unity, and regarded the quarter notes in the first-movement introduction as “the fundamental tempo.” Also, he wrote that in the Finale’s double fugue, “it is not enough to bring out themes as such [because] subsidiary parts would be too loud.” To get the desired contrapuntal clarity, he detailed dynamic subtleties required.
1st movement
The work begins with a majestic slow introduction which, although beginning in B-flat major, traverses through several keys. (This is the only one of Bruckner’s symphonies to begin with a slow introduction, but all the others, except Symphony No. 1, begin with sections that are like introductions in tempo, easing into the main material, like the opening of Beethoven's Ninth.) It eventually leans heavily toward D major without actually tonicizing it. The introduction progresses into a main movement in sonata form. After a climax in A major, the texture is thinned until only a violin tremolo remains. This tremolo, which starts on A, then moves to D, suggesting that D will become a tonal focal point. Instead, the opening theme is in B-flat minor.
Like much of Bruckner's music, this movement's exposition contains three main key regions instead of the usual two. The second theme group is in F minor, and comprises a small ternary form, with sections in F minor, D-flat major, and F minor. Bruckner introduces the third theme as an unprepared tonality (D-flat major). In the recapitulation, the themes' tonality progresses from B-flat minor to G minor to E-flat major. The coda begins in B-flat minor, but eventually shifts to the parallel major mode.
2nd and 3rd movements
The main material of the Adagio and Scherzo movements is similar, although heard of course at different tempos and launching different developments. The Adagio primarily relies upon the alternation of two thematic sections, the first of which contains a metrical superimposition of 6 against 4.
Jochum on the significance of the staccato arrowhead marking in the Scherzo: “the staccati must be very short, like a tapping. There must be something eerie about the whole. At the second tempo marking ("significantly slower"), a really high-spirited Upper Austrian peasant dance strikes up: here the crotchets marked with an arrow-head should be rather short and playfully marked, each note given a slight accent. In the Trio, too, especially in the piano section, the accents must be brief, light, and effervescent. The arrow-heads indicate actual staccati here: the quavers (eighth notes) on flutes and first violins before Letter A must be very light, dainty, and short. On the other hand, in the cello and double bass descent directly after Letter A, the arrow-heads signify a rounded line, and the notes marked with such must sound with audible vibrato and not be too short.”
4th movement
The long Finale opens in the same way as the first movement but veers off soon to gradually introduce new material which becomes the source of the themes of the Allegro moderato, another sonata form which contains in its course fugal and chorale sections of elaborate counterpoint. The hybridization of sonata form and fugal elements is a hallmark of this movement.
The first theme group is treated as a fugue exposition, followed by a non-fugal second group which functions as an episode. The third theme features prominent descending octaves, a gesture seen in the first movement. Closing the exposition is a chorale gesture. This thematic material is subsequently exploited in the development as the basis for a second fugue subject. By bar 270, both fugal subjects are intoned concurrently. The simultaneous presentation of the fugal subject also occurs at the beginning of the recapitulation (bar 374). When the recapitulation’s third group begins, the first theme from the first movement is also presented; the first-movement material closes the symphony, contributing greatly to its cyclic properties.
Versions
1876 version
This remains unpublished. In 1997 a first attempt at reconstruction — by including in the Finale music from the "1876 First Concept" (Ed. Carragan) — was recorded by Shunsaku Tsutsumi with the Shunyukai Symphony Orchestra. In this version the symphony is scored without a bass tuba, and more prominence is given to the string instruments. The tempo of the Adagio introductions to Movements 1 and 4, and that of Movement 2, are scored alla breve, i.e. notably faster than in 1878.
1878 version
This is the version normally performed. It exists in almost identical editions by Robert Haas (published 1935) and Leopold Nowak (1951). The Nowak has been amended twice, in 1989 (the “Second Revised Edition”) and 2005 (the “Third Revised Edition”). All of these are under the auspices of the MWV, the Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft in Vienna. Regardless of edition, the 1878 version is sometimes redundantly called the “Original Version,” perhaps to distinguish it from the inauthentic Schalk.
Schalk’s published edition, 1896
This first published edition, heard at the work’s premiere, was prepared by conductor Franz Schalk. It is unknown how much of the difference between Bruckner’s 1878 version and this 1896 edition reflects Bruckner and how much Schalk. It is however generally agreed that most of the changes were unapproved by the composer and are thus inauthentic. Schalk generally made Bruckner’s music sound Wagnerian, mainly by means of re-orchestration. The most obvious differences occur in the coda of the Finale. Here Schalk adds triangle and cymbals and an offstage brass band. Schalk also made cuts, mostly in the Finale.
Instrumentation
The symphony requires an instrumentation of one pair each flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, with four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and one bass tuba along with timpani and strings. Also note that, in its original form, the symphony was scored without a tuba. This was added in 1878, at the same time that Bruckner added a tuba to the second version of the Symphony No. 4.
