Has anyone else noticed how Sibelius seems to elude to the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven in the Finale of the Fifth?
As the horns and upper strings intone the famous bell like motif we hear a counter melody, a great singing cantable like theme on woodwind and cellos. The last part of this, for me seems to all but quote the first eight notes of Beethoven's'Ode To Joy'. It becomes most noticeable when this theme later emerges passionatly on the strings before the trumpets take up the 'Swan hymn'. Am I alone in seeing this connection.--kullervopete.

Well, I hadn't thought about it before - but yes, I see what you mean. And it's present in the 1915 version too. Coincidence, I would imagine, though one cannot be sure. Beethoven had certainly been an important figure and role model for Sibelius since 1886 at the latest.

kullervopete, on one hand, you are correct, the melody in the 5th does indeed follow the same contour as the Ode to Joy.

But I can hear the nay-sayers already... it's just a tune that goes up, then down...

It would be an interesting excersize to try to find as many examples of this type of contour in orchestral music as possible. Anyone care to play this game?

I offer the "Massaging the Mediant" melody from the first movement of Franck's d minor symphony.

I certainly cannot bring to mind any other example of Sibelius seeming to quote another Composer in this way. It may just be a coincidence but even such an authority as Andrew B, says that we cannot be sure.
I can think of examples were Sibelius comes close to the work of others. I am not a practising musician so I hope you will bear with me! Take the Coda from the opening movement of Sibs Third, in which we have Pizzicato strings which move up to a new hymn like figure--now listen to the opening of the finale of Brahms 1st Symphony. Again plucked strings leading to an almost identical chord on woodwind, coincidence or planned.
Even in Sibelius's great Cantata 'Jordens Sang' [Song Of The Earth] opus 93 and, as with the final version of the Fifth dating from 1919, we hear in the third section 'The Fighters' a dynamic figure on the brass that is powerfully Beethovian. It reveals afinities with the opening of The Fidelio Overture.
If nothing else, it bears out what Sibelius had written around this time 'Dont forget your great love of Beethoven. You can worship worse Gods'.--kullervopete.

I think that theme is built from the same material than what, for example, strings play from the bar six. To my mind it is like a cantus firmus, not a separate melody.