Gemma New Photo: Anthony Chang
The 1910s was a time of great change in music. Jean Sibelius’ innovations would be in the form of orchestral colour and structure.
The Finnish composer’s Symphony No 5 started life in 1915 as a four-movement work, but Sibelius later revised it - splicing the first two movements into one. The symphony is symmetrical in terms of tempo, beginning and ending the same way: the first movement starts slow and finishes fast, the second movement is a calm, stable-tempo interlude, then the third movement starts fast and finishes slow. Because Sibelius departs from the usual methodical development of his ideas, it’s not the easiest symphony to follow. Instead, he rotates the principal musical themes around again and again, transforming them each time in both small and large ways.
Jean Sibelius, 1913 Photo: Public Domain
In his diary, Sibelius noted the inspiration for the grand theme for this symphony: "Today I saw 16 swans. God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a silver ribbon."
“[It’s] strange to learn”, he said “that nothing in the whole world affects me—nothing in art, literature, or music—in the same way as do these swans.”
A magnificently transformed version of this ‘swan theme’ forms the majestic and imposing climax at the end of the symphony.
In the horns, you can almost hear the beating of great white wings, as the wind instruments sing out a full-throated melody.
Sibelius was commissioned to write the symphony by the Finnish government in honour of his 50th birthday, 8 December 1915, which had been declared a national holiday. The symphony was originally composed in 1915; it was revised in 1916 and 1919, around the time of both World War I and the Russian Revolution.
In 1918 Russian soldiers entered Sibelius’ hometown, searched Sibelius’ house and shot one of his neighbours. Sibelius and his family escaped to Helsinki to take refuge at the psychiatric hospital at which his brother was a senior doctor. Sibelius described one German bombardment like “a crescendo that lasted 30 hours.” No wonder he found such inspiration in nature!
Recorded 20 November 2020, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Darryl Stack
