Overview
Introduction
The Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82, by Jean Sibelius is a symphony in three movements that typically lasts around 33 minutes.
History
Sibelius was commissioned to write this symphony by the Finnish government in honor of his 50th birthday, which had been declared a national holiday. The symphony was originally composed in 1915. It was revised first in 1916 and then again in 1919.
The original version was premiered by Sibelius himself with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on his own 50th birthday, 8 December 1915. The second version (only part of which has survived) was first performed by the Orchestra of Turun Soitannollinen Seura in Turku exactly one year later. The final version, which is the most commonly performed today, was premiered by Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on 24 November 1919.
The 1910s were a decade of change for the symphonic form which had existed for over a century. Meanwhile, various landmark works in other genres had presented further radical developments. In 1909 Schoenberg continued pushing for more dissonant and chromatic harmonies in his Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16. From 1910–1913 Igor Stravinsky premiered his innovative and revolutionary ballets, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps). Ravel and Debussy were at work developing and performing their Impressionistic music. Though having spent nearly 30 years in the public spotlight, Jean Sibelius found his works receiving poor reviews for the first time with the 1911 premiere of his Fourth Symphony and, as James Hepokoski theorized, the composer “was beginning to sense his own eclipse as a contending modernist.”
These events perhaps brought Sibelius to a point of crisis in his career, maybe forcing him to choose between changing his style to fill the more modern desires of audiences or continue composing as he felt best fit. The first version of this symphony kept his orchestral style (consonant sonorities, woodwind lines in parallel thirds, rich melodic development, etc.) while further developing his structural style. Hepokoski calls this structural development “sonata deformation” or the change and development of sonata form itself. The success of this change is reflected in the popularity of the Fifth Symphony to the present day.
The first version of the Fifth Symphony still has much in common with the more modernist Fourth Symphony as it features some bitonal passages; the version from 1919 seems to be more straightforward and classicistic. Sibelius commented on his revision: "I wished to give my symphony another – more human – form. More down-to-earth, more vivid."[1]
Instrumentation
The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings.
Structure
This symphony is unusual in its structure:
- Tempo molto moderato – Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto) – Vivace molto – Presto – Più Presto (in E-flat major)
- Andante mosso, quasi allegretto – Poco a poco stretto – Tranquillo – Poco a poco stretto – Ritenuto al tempo I (in G major)
- Allegro molto – Misterioso – Un pochettino largamente – Largamente assai – Un pochettino stretto (in E-flat major)
Among the multi-movement symphonies by Sibelius, this is the only one where all the movements are in major keys.
The form of the symphony is symmetrical when it comes to tempo: the first movement starts in a slow tempo but ends with the fast "scherzo". The second movement is a neither slow nor fast movement; it forms a calm "intermezzo". Then follows the third movement, which begins in a fast tempo but ends slowly. The duration is approximately 32 minutes.
