Symphony No. 5 in E‑Flat Major

No other work by Sibelius had so protracted a genesis as his Fifth Symphony. Written for his 50th birthday concert on 8 December 1915, it was revised the following year and again for a performance of the definitive version in Helsinki on 24 November 1919. What is now the first movement was initially two separate entities. Sibelius amalgamated them so that the moderately paced first half starts with an atmospheric main theme on horns and woodwind, duly intensifying before a haunting passage for solo bassoon is repeated more forcefully on brass and strings. This climaxes in a fervent return of the main theme as the transition into the second half, effectively a scherzo whose underlying tempo continually accelerates as it develops earlier motifs through to a conclusion of airborne velocity. Less a slow movement than an intermezzo, the “Andante mosso, quasi allegretto” unfolds as a sequence of variations on the insouciant theme, initially stated by woodwind with a prominent role for pizzicato strings. This contrasts with the “Allegro molto” finale, its hectic first theme on strings soon followed by a majestic melody with horns to the fore—an evocation of swans in flight, which was the work’s starting point. Both themes are developed constantly before the horns’ motif reappears on trumpets at the start of a peroration, whose overwhelming triumph is confirmed by those six decisive orchestral chords at the close.