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Symphony No. 5 (Bruckner)

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The Symphony No. 5 in B-flat of Anton Bruckner was written in 1875–6, with a few minor changes over the next few years. It was not premiered until 1894 by Franz Schalk in Graz (Bruckner was sick and unable to attend: he never heard this symphony performed). It was dedicated to Karl von Stremayr, minister of education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The symphony is also referred to as the "Tragic," "Church of Faith," or "Pizzicato" symphony.

Contents

Description

The symphony was written at a time of much trouble and disillusionment during the composer's life, a court suit (from which he was exonerated), a reduction in salary. It is not outwardly a work of storm and stress, but it is a piece of "working out", one of his most contrapuntally intricate works.

It has four movements:

  1. Introduction (Adagio) — Allegro. B-flat major. (It is the only one of Bruckner's symphonies to begin with a pizzicato, hence the nickname)
  2. Adagio. Sehr langsam. D minor.
  3. Scherzo. Molto vivace D minor.
  4. Finale (Adagio) — Allegro moderato. B-flat major.
The work begins with a majestic slow introduction, which progresses into a main movement in sonata form whose opening theme in B-flat hints also at G-flat. Like much of Bruckner's music the exposition of this movement has three main key regions instead of the usual two.

The main material of the slow movement and scherzo are very similar, heard of course at different tempos and launching different developments.

The finale opens in the same way as the first movement, but veers off soon to gradually introduce new material which becomes the source of the themes of the Allegro moderato, another sonata form which contains in its course fugal and chorale sections of elaborate counterpoint.

The symphony is the only one of Bruckner's nine that begins with a slow introduction (although the finale of the Nullte also has a slow introduction). However, all the others except the C minor first begin with sections that are like introductions "in-tempo", easing into the main material like the opening of Beethoven's Ninth.

Versions

1876 version

This earliest version of the score has not survived fully and no recordings have been made of it. Some passages have been reconstructed in a MIDI file [link].

1878 version

This is the version normally performed. It exists in editions by Robert Haas (published 1935) and Leopold Nowak (published 1951) which are almost identical.

1896 first published version (Schalk)

The first published version (which was also the version heard at the work's premiere) was edited by Franz Schalk. It is unclear exactly how much of the difference between the 1878 and 1896 versions was due to Bruckner and how much to Schalk, but it is generally agreed that most of the changes were unapproved by Bruckner and inauthentic. Schalk generally made Bruckner's music sound more Wagnerian, mainly by means of reorchestration. The most obvious differences occur in the coda of the Finale. In the last few pages, Schalk adds triangle and cymbals, and an offstage brass band. Schalk also made several cuts, mostly in the Finale.

The only recordings of this version are by Hans Knappertsbusch, Leon Botstein and Noguchi, together with the recording premiere of the scherzo by Dol Dauber (see Discography below). All other recordings are of 1878 version in either the Haas or Nowak edition.

Instrumentation

The symphony requires an instrumentation of one pair each flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, with four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and one tuba along with timpani and strings (the "Wagner tuba", an instrument Wagner used in his operas and which no longer exists in the form originally designed, was not requested by Bruckner until his last few symphonies). Also note that, in its original form, the symphony was scored without a bass tuba. This was added in 1878, at the same time that Bruckner added a tuba to the fourth symphony.

Discography

The first commercial recording of part of the symphony was made by Dol Dauber with his salon orchestra around 1930 for HMV. It included only the scherzo, in the Schalk edition.

The first commercial recording of the complete symphony was made by Karl Böhm with the Dresden Staatskapelle in 1937. It, and nearly every subsequent recording, has used either the Haas or Nowak editions.

Notable recordings

External links

 

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