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Thursday 8 March, 7.30pm
Butterworth A Shropshire Lad; Rhapsody for Orchestra
Michael Nyman Choral Work (world premiere:BBC commission)
Schoenberg Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth) Op 13
SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO 5 IN E FLAT MAJOR Op 82
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus
John Storgards conductor
Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
Book tickets
What makes this Symphony so Great?
Sibelius celebrates the force of life itself in his Fifth Symphony. During the work's long gestation, the composer was mesmerised by the appearance overhead of sixteen migrating swans. "One of my greatest experiences!" he noted. "My God what beauty! They circled over me for a long time ... Mysticism of nature and life's Angst". The swans called out a melody that eventually became the theme of the Fifth Symphony's finale.
Natural beauty and human emotions are the stuff of Sibelius's majestic symphony, among the Finnish composer's greatest compositions. He began work on the score in 1914 and, the day after the outbreak of World War One, created what he described as a "beautiful theme". Because most of his works were published in Germany , the onset of war left Sibelius without regular royalty income. He abandoned the new symphony in favour of creating short works to make a living.
In the autumn of 1914, Sibelius expressed his sense of frustration over the symphony. Ideas came to him continuously, but he was unable to find time to develop them. "Once again in a deep valley. But I can already distinguish the mountain that I shall surely have to climb ... God opens his door for an instant, and his orchestra is playing the Fifth Symphony," he wrote to a friend. The composer managed to reach the mountaintop by the following year's end. The symphony's first version received its first performance in Helsinki on Sibelius's fiftieth birthday, 8 December 1915. Although it was a huge critical and popular hit, the composer realised that he had rushed the work from sketchbook to finished score. "I'm wrestling with God," he noted in his diary. It took until 1919 for Sibelius to win his creative battle and finish the revised score. A dozen swans circled the composer's home three times within minutes of him completing work.
(c) Andrew Stewart 2006
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