Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony

City Halls Glasgow 22/5/25

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor), Stefan Dohr (horn)

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-25 season closed in Glasgow’s City Halls on the night of Thursday 22nd May with Sibelius' heartwarming Fifth Symphony, prompting the publicity tagline: “Imagine … spine-tingling melodies that fill your heart with hope”.  Principal Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth returned after a 4-month gap.  Before the interval, celebrated hornist and Principal Horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, Stefan Dohr, was the soloist in the 2019 concerto written for him by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, the BBCSSO’s Composer-in-Association.  Completing the “basket of goodies” lineup were two Beethoven works, the First Symphony (published 1801) and the 1815 ‘Namensfeier’ Overture.  Leader of the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, David Adams, was guest leader for the night.  The concert was broadcast live on Radio 3 in Concert and introduced as usual by Kate Molleson.  The recording will be available as a podcast on BBC Sounds for the next 4 weeks.  Attendance was entirely satisfactory.

Beethoven’s First Symphony is the only one of the nine in which I’ve played: principal cello in the amateur band, Festival Orchestra of Abu Dhabi, 32 years ago.  It can be hard for a 21st century audience to imagine just how shocking the “almost but not quite” classical symphony was when first performed.  Starting with a dominant seventh in the wrong key, full of sforzandi and displaced accents, unprecedented prominence for the wind band, flashes of Haydn humour with a very Beethoven twist, and with more than a little chutzpah, not everybody was a fan.  But for us it’s an evergreen gem.  Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBCSSO made it seem fresh and new, with ‘surprises’ that tickled the funny bone without jarring.  I can vouch (from personal experience) for it being as delightful to play as to listen to but, even without that knowledge, this was evident from the players’ faces.  The playful mischief of the brisk Allegro con brio was given full rein.  Both the “cantabile” and the “con moto” markings of the Andante were fully honoured, singing its cheerful whimsical tale as if we were hearing it from the lips of a skilled raconteur.  The fugal countermelody that is launched by the cellos to accompany the reprise of the main melody was particularly delicious.  The undanceable Menuetto (really a scherzo) was as rambunctious as you like; its trio less drunken perhaps but just as cheeky.  The finale, a shameless romp with the sforzandi and displaced accents back in the driving seat, was the hoot it should be.  An excellent concert opener, with the artistic partnership of orchestra and conductor clearly still on full form.

Queen’s Hall regulars may have caught Stefan Dohr (and friends) in a lunchtime programme of last year’s Edinburgh International Festival which included Brahms’ glorious Horn Trio in an unforgettably heartwarming performance.  We have also had a few Abrahamsen pieces on the BBCSSO menu over the years, though hitherto all have involved huge orchestral forces.  For the concerto, the instrumentation was colourful and certainly not small, but nor was it anywhere near the proportions of those other pieces.  About Abrahamsen’s music in the past, I have written: “The music ... is a force to be reckoned with and, though complex and demanding of the listener, is refreshingly untainted by any influences of the Darmstadt School.”  Thus, my expectations of soloist and composer (himself a hornist and a pupil of Ligeti) were entirely positive and, I am glad to report, not confounded.  The concerto is in three movements.  The first is slow and atmospheric, with use of natural horn harmonics giving the music a meditative, improvisatory character, while soft orchestral sonorities and colours with interesting instrumental combinations add a sense of mystery.  The second movement is stormy and restless, with scurrying winds contrasting with menacing growls from the double-basses and trombones, while the horn solo ranges over the full compass of the instrument, with moments of lyricism and even a conversation with the piccolo.  The finale is in two sections, a slow meditation over more menacing rumblings from bass drum and others, followed by a faster, more cheerful and lyrical quasi-fantasia, ending peacefully.  The playing from soloist and orchestra was phenomenal.  I shall definitely be returning for a second listen to this piece on BBC Sounds, though not for a week yet, as I shall be busy at the Perth Festival of the Arts.

Despite the high opus number (Op.110) the sound world of the ‘Namensfeier’ Overture is remarkably akin to that of Op.55, the ‘Eroica’ symphony.  I am pretty sure that this was a first hearing for me.  It is confident and ebullient and very obviously by Beethoven.  After an opening fanfare, the music bowls along with great glee and some lovely lyrical string writing.  Hard to see why it has been neglected.  I had not forgotten Ryan Wigglesworth’s superb reading of the ‘Eroica’ two years ago at the Lammermuir Festival, but this performance brought it to mind again.  Excellent.

Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony is an enigmatic work in many ways, familiar to modern audiences as the second (1919) revision, always leaving the listener buoyed with a sense of abiding positivity, despite containing significant moments of anxiety, doubt and even despair along its 3-movement journey, even recalling the grim austerity of the Fourth in places.  In an evening where horns figured prominently, the symphony relies much on the instrument’s colour in the advancing of its musical arguments.  Images of renewal, sunrise and spring feature in the opening, but before long shadows are cast.  Positivity is regained for the end of the first movement with a frisky folkdance.  A leisurely nostalgic simple song opens the not-particularly-slow slow movement, but it too slips into anxiety and doubt before sweetness reasserts itself.  The finale’s two principal elements, one full of nervous energy, the other majestic (supposedly suggested by the flight of swans) engage in a struggle to define the denouement.  The latter ‘wins’, but only just, and the struggle almost extinguishes its confidence.  Enigmatic, but the catharsis never fails to capture an audience, and Glasgow was no exception.  The applause was thunderous and ecstatic for a powerful and cogent reading of the masterpiece.  The wait for the 2025-26 season commences.