the school orchestra performs this symphony this coming weekend, which means i had to write these program notes for it. i wrote an analysis post on the third movement at the beginning of this blog, which you can find here.
i really love this symphony. it's quite youthful and full-blooded, but with some quintessentially sibelian qualities: how textural it is, for example, with rhythmic intricacies that can only really be there if everyone truly locks in to the important parts. the first movement has this magnificent soaring line that gets handed off between brass players and strings. the second is beautiful and serene except for this gradually building agitato in the middle, which has a really stirring section of hemiola - basses and string pizz in 3 against a melody that is fundamentally in 2. the third is that vital blend of scherzo alternating with gorgeous harmony, and the fourth movement is a "fantasia" - long, juicy, discursive themes; winding, spread-out (basically sonata) form.
and here are your program notes.
Sibelius was thirty-three years old when he produced his first effort at a full symphony, after several years of writing mostly tone-poems for the full orchestra. In fact, his most well-known composition, the tone poem Finlandia, was produced earlier in the same year as this symphony, and shares its quintessentially Finnish patriotism. The work lacks the compactness and austerity of his later symphonies, but makes up for it with lush romanticism and youthful vigor. Sibelius premiered the work himself in April 1899, and later that year revised it into the version we know today. The symphony opens with a long, discursive, and solemn clarinet solo over a quietly portentous timpani roll. As it concludes, we enter the Allegro energico and the movement proper, which is in a brisk, tempestuous 6/4 meter. The strings give the primary theme, a sustained note followed by a quick rhythmic flourish. This is quickly expanded to a grander statement by the full orchestra. The second theme, given by the winds, is pointed and lighthearted. Three gray pizzicato unison notes conclude the exposition. The development of the movement is long and meandering, featuring a long chromatic section of falling wind lines. The movement concludes after completing the sonata form, and is punctuated by two firm E-minor pizzicato chords.
The distant key of E-flat major is home for the warm and nostalgic second movement. After a lyrical theme presented by hushed strings, the bassoons present their answer, which wanders and gradually accelerates, gathering the rest of the the winds and brass along the way. This is a microcosm for how the remainder of the movement progresses: the middle tranquillo section is dominated by a serene horn choir, but the opening themes are brought back more and more darkly and urgently until they build to a rapid swirling climax – and suddenly, stop. Exhausted, the music hangs over apedal E-flat before the strings return with a variant of the opening theme, interrupted by striking silences, as if the music pauses for breath, before coming to a gentle rest.
The third movement, a romping scherzo set in C major, is in standard ternary form (A-B-A). The movement makes extensive use of pointillistic wind writing, string pizzicato, and hemiolas. Uniquely, the first section's theme is given by the timpani, which plays a prominent role throughout. The scherzo's galloping is suddenly interrupted by a single sustained chord in brass, bass, and bassoons which hovers unresolved for several measures, before moving on to begin the middle section in E major. This section is calmer and more flowing; the ends of phrases are elongated by fermatas and grand pauses, as if pausing briefly for reflection. But on the last of these lapses, tuba and winds wrench the music back to the opening tempo, and the scherzo
returns, capering to a rollicking close.
Sibelius writes “Quasi una Fantasia” at the beginning of the last movement, suggesting a rhapsodic, improvisatory feeling to a movement that mostly follows sonata form. The slow introduction, scored for impassioned unison strings, is an ardent, unapologetically bold restatement of the melancholy clarinet solo which opened the symphony. This soon segues into a fast Allegro molto, which is rhythmic and urgent. The music builds steadily in tempo and dynamic, rushing headlong into a fermata and stopping short after a rushed tumbling descent in the violins. Without overture, the second theme enters in C Major, expansive and lush. A short bridge in the winds concludes the exposition and we return to the Allegro molto tempo to begin a long development. Sibelius elides the the recapitulation by beginning a development of the second theme that gradually morphs into its official return, this time even more fervent, and set in the dominant key of B major. This theme is taken to its apex before spilling back into the home key of E minor. A desperate, furious climax follows, featuring strings cascading over each other and sustained chords from winds and brass. The symphony ends with two bleak, E-minor pizzicati.
