Program Notes: Sibelius Symphony No. 5

ANNA MEREDITH 
Nautilus 
BORN: 1978 in London, United Kingdom 
WORK COMPOSED: 2011/arr. 2021 
WORLD PREMIERE: September 16, 2021, with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Dalia Stasevska conducting. 

What to Listen For:  

• The subtle shift in rhythm within the machine-like precision and perpetual motion. 

•  The powerful wall of sound created by the full orchestra with each rising phrase.   

Composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music, Anna Meredith straddles the worlds of contemporary classical, art pop, soundtracks, techno and experimental rock. Called “one of the most innovative minds in modern British music” by Pitchfork, Meredith’s recent projects include a concerto for beatboxer and orchestra, and an album of string quartets and electronics for the Ligeti Quartet. Her body percussion piece, Connect It, which uses clapping, stomping and shouting instead of instruments, was commissioned by the BBC and resulted in a collaborative performance by school children throughout the UK. Meredith frequently tours and collaborates with her band, which consists of cello, tuba, electric guitar and drums. Their appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts was described by Bob Boilen as “the most exhilarating [Tiny Desk] I’ve experienced.”  

Nautilus was originally composed as an electronic work and appears as the first track on Meredith’s 2016 debut album, Varmints, which received widespread critical acclaim and won the Scottish Album of the Year Award. The orchestral version of Nautilus was arranged by Meredith’s bandmate, guitarist Jack Ross, for Dalia Stasevska’s inaugural concert as Chief Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland. The short work is a nonstop progression of energetic, pulsating movement. In Meredith’s notes, she describes coming up with the rising lines that emerge from the orchestral texture “whilst stomping along a beach in Scotland.” A slight shift in rhythm reflects her steps “across different parts of the material.”  

Meredith has described the impulse behind this piece: “Nautilus was written as sort of call to arms (for myself!) and was one of the first tracks I wrote when I started to work in electronics alongside my acoustic or orchestral writing. This shift was my way to reclaim some power over my writing, making albums where I would be in complete control. It’s a lovely full circle for this piece to now be rearranged back to an orchestral form.”  

LAURI PORRA 
Entropia Concerto for Electric Bass 
BORN: December 13, 1977, in Helsinki, Finland 
WORK COMPOSED: 2015 
WORLD PREMIERE: December 2, 2015, with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Jaakko Kuusisto conducting. 

What to Listen For:  

• The slow buildup of tension toward the chaotic climax and the resulting peace and beauty that follows. 

• The expressive, lyrical qualities of the electric bass and the rock stylings of the percussion section.  

Lauri Porra — bassist for the legendary Finnish power metal band Stratovarius and the great-grandson of composer Jean Sibelius — is familiar with breaking boundaries and melding seemingly disparate genres into a cohesive work. With deep roots in classical and rock, Porra writes music for symphony orchestras, film and other media. He recently reimagined J.S. Bach’s cello suites in a program of arrangements and original work for bass guitar and cello. In addition to touring with Stratovarius, Porra performs with his jazz/rock band, the Flyover Ensemble.  

Entropia begins mysteriously, with eerie sounds emerging from the soloist and ensemble. The melodic material is cinematic in scope, moving from serene calm to the peak of chaos, inevitably resulting in a return to stability. The electric bass is an expressive partner to the orchestra, both as a lyrical soloist and a driving rhythmic force. A breaking point arrives as the soloist interacts with the bristling percussion section in dazzling virtuosity. The work concludes peacefully, as the chaos realigns into a thing of beauty.   

In the liner notes for the recording of Entropia, Porra wrote: “In the Entropia concerto two contrasting elements are combined: a symphony orchestra and a bass guitar. The encounter readily produces disarray, as their history and aesthetic values are fundamentally dissimilar. That which one perceives as richness may be regarded by the other as impoverishment. In the worst case the two worlds may be blind to each other’s greatness.  

“As an allegory of entropy, I use the meeting of two people, and their sharing of a connection. Two different worlds come into contact, creating disorder in each one’s original world view and in the experience of the self. Unlike hot and cold water, or a falling dish, human beings have their own free will. They can experience change as an enhancing or a destructive force. Chaos can sometimes serve as a strength and as an enriching element in the quest for a new, unlimited world.” 

JEAN SIBELIUS 
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 
BORN: December 8, 1865, in Hämeenlinna, Finland 
DIED: September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää, Finland 
WORK COMPOSED: 1915, revised in 1916. Final revision in 1919. 
WORLD PREMIERE: December 8, 1915, in celebration of Sibelius’s 50th birthday. The Helsinki Municipal Orchestra was conducted by the composer.  
FIRST SEATTLE SYMPHONY PERFORMANCE: March 10, 1985, with Gerard Schwarz conducting. 

What to Listen For:  

• This expansive work reflects Sibelius’s affinity for nature and the Finnish landscape. The resplendent “swan hymn” of the finale is one of the composer’s grandest themes.  

• In a notebook entry from 1914, Sibelius wrote: “In a deep valley again. But I already begin to see dimly the mountain that I shall certainly ascend … God opens His door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.”  

Jean Sibelius reached the status of a cultural hero in Finland early on in his career as a composer. His first major work, Kullervo, was based on legends from the Kalevala, the famous Finnish epic that became a symbol of the country’s fight for independence from Russia in the early 19th century. The overwhelming success of Kullervo’s premiere in Helsinki made Sibelius a national celebrity overnight and his music was continually embraced by a population dedicated to cultivating Finland’s identity and freedom.  

The much anticipated Fifth Symphony was premiered on the evening of Sibelius’s 50th birthday, which was celebrated as a national holiday in Finland. Unsatisfied with the performance, the self-critical Sibelius withdrew the score and immediately began to revise the work, conducting a second version a year later. The third and final revision was completed in 1919. Sibelius wrote in a letter that year that his symphony was “practically composed anew” and “culminates in a vital, triumphant climax.”  

The composing and revising of Sibelius’s Fifth took place amid the turmoil of World War I, which broke out as the composer was on his way home from a much-lauded trip to the U.S. Further hardship came in 1917 as Finland declared independence and found itself at war with Russia. Russian troops invaded Sibelius’s town and searched his home for weapons, forcing him and his family to flee to Helsinki. As stability returned in 1919, Sibelius moved back to Ainola, the country home he named after his wife, and renewed work on his symphony. It was completed just in time for his birthday performance.  

One of the most striking changes Sibelius undertook in the final version was the combining of the first two movements into one longer movement that features a progression from a meandering and expansive opening section into an accelerated and fiery scherzo. The work begins with a gentle horn call, which is answered by the woodwinds. Later, the strings play in a continually agitated manner over mournful phrases in the bassoon before uniting in an impassioned melody while trumpets intone the opening horn call. These elements seamlessly merge into a faster dance-like section that brims with energy and an unstoppable momentum.  

The second movement is a set of variations with a delicate theme in pizzicato strings that alternates with flutes over sustained woodwind chords. A pastoral mood permeates the folk-inflected movement, with darker moments of intrusive brass and the distant thunder of timpani rolls punctuating the texture.  

The rustling excitement of the finale leads to what Sibelius called his “swan hymn”: a glorious melody that rises and falls in the horns, reflecting the grandeur of nature that so deeply affected the composer. In his notebook next to a sketch of this theme, Sibelius described seeing 16 swans fly above him at his country home: “Lord God, that beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming, silver ribbon …” Three days later, he wrote again in his notebook: “The swans are always in my thoughts and give splendor to [my] life. [It’s] strange to learn that nothing in the whole world affects me — nothing in art, literature, or music — in the same way as do these swans and cranes and wild geese. Their voices and being.” This noble melody recedes as a more active theme takes over and is developed. Hints of the swan hymn appear within an increasingly complex texture that leads to an astonishing conclusion: six chords, full of weight and surrounded by bold silences, pierce the air and are gone in a flash.  

All notes by Catherine Case © 2023