Symphony No. 5 (Nielsen)

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The Symphony No. 5 (Op. 50, FS 97) by Danish composer Carl Nielsen is one of the most famous composition by the composer. He begun to write the symphony in 1920 after the World War I and completed it in 15 January 1922 as dated in the score. The work is renowned for its high originality and its weight of substance, which distinguishes it from its precedent classical-romantic symphonies. It was one of the only two of Nielsen's six symphonies without a subtitle (the other is Symphony No. 1 in G minor). The work is dedicated to Vera and C. J. Michaelsen.

The fifth symphony was premièred in Copenhagen with the composer conducting on 24 January 1922. However, the symphony was not performed outside Denmark until 1927, in Frankfurt under Wilhelm Furtwängler; it reached Britain 27 years after the symphony was composed, when Erik Tuxen conducted it in a 1948 BBC studio concert.

Robert Simpson sees the work as a struggle to break free from "apathy and reaction" represented by the key of F. The first movement manages a provisional victory in G major, but the second movement soon finds itself mired in two F minor fugatos. Only at the very end is a triumphant conclusion achieved in E-flat major, which Simpson says had been hinted at since the beginning.

It is scored for 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (second doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, side drum, celesta, and strings.

1 Structure
- 1.1 First movement
- 1.2 Second movement
2 Discography
3 References

[edit] Structure

The fifth symphony is the only one by Nielsen to be in two movements rather than the usual four. Nielsen once jokingly explained to the press that it was easy to write the first three movements of a symphony but in the finale most composers "slipped up":

Tempo giusto - Adagio non troppo
Allegro - Presto - Andante un poco tranquillo - Allegro

[edit] First movement

The first movement begins mysteriously with the soft, static pulse of violas between A and C notes, being infiltrated by the entries of the bassoons and other wind instruments; the beginning of Tempo giusto, in Robert Simpson's words, is "like the wave of a seismograph that reacts to the tremors of earthquake at vast distances, then settles to its neutral uniformity". After the cold and emotionless strings passage, clarinet and flute enter with "savage and destructively egotistical" melodies amid simple percussive beats. The ominous string music is painfully distorted and disintegrated. As the tonality rose in fifth from F to C and is attempting from C to G, the violas and cellos fail to catch the G note, falling in descending triplets and return to C note. The music fades with violins' repetition on D note and tambourine.

From the cold landscape there arises a warm, optimistic theme in G major in Adagio non troppo section. The music is soon disturbed by woodwinds playing the shivering element in Tempo giusto, menaced by the snare drum at a tempo faster than that of the orchestra. It is at its climax comes the famous instruction to snare drummer by the composer to improvise "as if at all costs he wants to stop the progress of the orchestra". Nevertheless, the great theme triumphs eventually affirmed by the snare drum actually joins the orchestral fanfare; the solitary clarinet is remained to mourn, as if to the terrible cost of the victory, or as a comfort postlude to the weakening impact of the snare drum.

[edit] Second movement

The second movement in four section consists of an "exposition", a fast fugue, a slow fugue and a coda. The music bursts in energetically in B major and continues with great conflicts between instruments, until the calm, broad theme is found in the slow fugue. Without interference, it progresses to another triumphant coda in E flat major, ends in the key far remote from the opening.

[edit] Discography

A typical performance of the Symphony lasts at most 40 minutes. On compact disc, some record labels split the movements into more than one track each, as Decca Records does for Herbert Blomstedt's recording with the San Francisco Symphony, while others have just two tracks for the two movements (e.g., Osmo Vänskä's recording with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra).

Notable recordings include:

Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Jensen (Dutton)
New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (CBS/Sony)
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Jascha Horenstein (Unicorn-Kanchana)
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Blomstedt (Decca)

[edit] References

Simpson, Robert (1989). Carl Nielsen, Symphonist, 1865-1931. USA: Hyperion. ISBN 0-88355-715-0.
Program notes on Symphony No. 5 by Robert Layton and Antony Hodgson