Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 (Version 1915)

Description

Sibelius completed his Fifth Symphony, Op. 82 for the concert arranged to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his birth on 8 December 1915. The festive concert in Helsinki took place in the Solemnity Hall of the Imperial Alexander University (University of Helsinki); Sibelius conducted the Helsinki City Orchestra. Celebrations of Sibelius and his music and performances of the Fifth Symphony were not limited to his anniversary day. His works were performed frequently during the following five weeks, and the Fifth Symphony alone was heard three times in Helsinki. So, the program of the festive concert was repeated in the National Theater and in the Solemnity Hall of the University on 12 and 18 December, respectively.

The reception of the Fifth Symphony was very positive. After the latter concert the composer and critic Otto Kotilainen wrote that, in terms of the treatment of themes and form, the Fourth Symphony was a turning point in Sibelius's production but the "Fifth, the latest of the symphonies, is perfection in this direction." He continues: "The actual themes are shortened to motives, they are not constructed of phrases [and] periods, as the classical style implies. But the elaboration of these motives, their extension and intensification in various relations of dynamics and keys is masterly. The different motives in each movement are joined together as a continuity to the extent that they could be considered to be like a single, enormous theme. The form is free but simultaneously so perfectly firm that the removal or addition of even the shortest beat of a bar would break the formal structure."

Nonetheless, Sibelius revised the work twice: first, for a concert arranged in Turku exactly one year later, and eventually in 1918–1919. The present volume contains the 1915 version, published for the first time. The autograph score of the version is lost. The orchestral parts survive, however, and the score in this volume has been reconstructed from the parts.