Great endings no 1 - Sibelius symphony no 5

A long and tiring day at work today and feeling pretty miserable by the time I got home.  I turned on the TV for some mindless watching and found myself listening to Sibelius 5 from the Proms.  It really cheered my spirits - the end of the symphony is one of the most uplifting moments I know - I really did find myself shouting out in excitement after the last chord.   So I have decided to start a new series - on great endings.

I've a limited amount of experience of Sibelius.  I've played the first and second symphonies and done a play through of the fourth.  I've never played the fifth although I did a conducted a string sectional once.   I don't know all of the symphonies that well but particularly enjoy the second and third.

But the finale of the fifth must be the composer's greatest achievement.  This is a wonderful example of organic growth and the screwing up of tension towards a triumphant harmonic resolution.   And then there are those final chords - the massive hammer blows - irregularly spaced with time almost standing still between each of the chords - except between the last two, which are more closely spaced than the others.  It never fails to thrill.

It is such a stroke of genius that one feels that it must have come as red hot inspiration to the composer.  But we know that this is not the case.  The 5th symphony had a complex gestation and the work as first performed was significantly different to the version which we now know and love.  The most remarkable difference is right at the end. The hammer blows are still there but there is no silence between them - instead sustained string chords.  Such a different effect.

It is of course difficult if not impossible to hear this original version without comparing it with the familiar revision and so it sounds very odd.  If you can get the revised version out of your head I suspect that the original version is, on its own terms, highly effective, but there is no doubt that the revision makes a much greater effect.

Genius is indeed 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.!