Beethoven and Sibelius take the Fifth

Synopsis

Some symphonies are famous for their openings, but others are more often remembered for their ENDINGS.

In Helsinki, Finland, on today's date in 1921, composer Jean Sibelius conducted the definitive version of his Fifth Symphony, a work that features unforgettable and highly unusual closing pages.

Sibelius had been tinkering with this symphony for five years. He completed the first version in 1915, then one year later introduced a radically revised version. Three years after that, in 1919, he adjusted his adjustments.

At that point, he seems to have waited to see if he was well and truly satisfied. Two years passed, nothing more came to mind that needing fixing, and so, on today's date in 1921, the version that we hear today in concert halls around the world had its premiere performance.

We can only imagine how stunned audiences at the first performances of Sibelius' Fifth must have been by the work's finale, when, like some huge machine coming to rest, the orchestra grinds out six jagged unison chords, set off by dramatic pauses of total silence.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Symphony No. 5 Royal Philharmonic; René Leibowitz, cond. Chesky 17

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957) Symphony No. 5 Lahti Symphony; Osmo Vänska BIS 1288

On This Day

Births

• 1879 - French composer, pianist, and writer Joseph Canteloube, in Annonay (near Tournon);

• 1885 - Austrian composer and musicologist Egon Wellesz, in Vienna;

• 1921 - English composer (Sir) Malcolm Arnold, in Northampton;

• 1926 - American composer Marga Richter, in Reedsburg, Wisconsin;

• 1949 - Israeli composer Shulamit Ran, in Tel Aviv;

Deaths

• 1662 - English composer Henry Lawes, age 66, in London;

Premieres

• 1784 - Gretry: opera, "Richard Coeur de Lion" (Richard the Lionhearted), in Paris;

• 1858 - Offenbach: comic opera, "Orphée aux enfers" (Orpheus in the Underworld), in Paris;

• 1900 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan," at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (Gregorian date: Nov. 3);

• 1921 - Third (and final) version of Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, in Helsinki under the composer's direction; Sibelius conducted the first performances of two earlier versions of this symphony in Helsinki on Dec. 8, 1915 and Dec. 14, 1916;

• 1926 - Nielsen: Flute Concerto (first version), in Paris, conducted by Emil Telmányi (the composer's son-in-law), with Holger Gilbert-Jespersen the soloist; Nielsen revised this score and premiered the final version in Oslo on November 9, 1926, again with Gilbert-Jespersen as the soloist;

• 1933 - Gershwin: musical "Let 'Em Eat Cake," at the Imperial Theater in New York City;

• 1941 - Copland: Piano Sonata, in Buenos Aires, by the composer;

• 1956 - Menotti: madrigal-fable "The Unicorn, the Gordon and the Manticore," at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.;

• 1984 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Double Quartet for strings, at a concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, by the Emerson Quartet and friends.

• 2004 - Danielpour: "Songs of Solitude" (to texts of W.B. Yeats), at the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, by baritone Thomas Hampson and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Daniel Robertson conducting;

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in D, Op. 6, no. 5 and possibly his Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6, no. 9 as well (see Julian date: Oct. 10).