Marginally off topic in that you'll have to watch the disc to get to the quotes, but here goes anyway:

A new DVD of Sibelius’s Symphony No.5 is available featuring the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, recorded in 2008. The audio tracks are in surround sound as well as conventional stereo, and the disc also features extracts from the symphony’s original 1915 version and an interview with Jukka-Pekka Saraste by the present contributor.

Nordisk Film & TV DVD 1794931 · available online from

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Price: NOK.99.50 [approx. £9.50] + postage

The more precise link:

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A second DVD from the same artists including Sibelius’s First Symphony is in preparation.

'The fifth symphony is in a way more conservative, but this concerns only its harmonies, which are simpler after the modern complexity of the fourth symphony. The fifth is also to a greater extent a descendant of Wagner. The important thing now is to take a deep breath'.--Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor.

I've read that Wagner looms large in the fourth symphony and now Finnish conductor Saraste asserts that the fifth is Wagnerian. I can't fully agree!--kp

kullervopete wrote:

'The fifth symphony is in a way more conservative, but this concerns only its harmonies, which are simpler after the modern complexity of the fourth symphony. The fifth is also to a greater extent a descendant of Wagner. The important thing now is to take a deep breath'.--Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor. I've read that Wagner looms large in the fourth symphony and now Finnish conductor Saraste asserts that the fifth is Wagnerian. I can't fully agree!--kp

The pulsating end of the 1st movement always reminds me of Wagner.

I suppose one could say that the opening of the Fifth has a certain Wagnerian drifting, but the transformation into the 'Scherzo' second part and the gradual increase in speed right up to that splendid blaze in E flat major from the brass is more Ludwig than Richard.-- kp

If it had been Richard, it wouldn't have reached the end yet

Wagnerian (1st mvmt) perhaps in its avoidance of big cadences and compact, easily-definable phrases. But that could be said of many pieces by Sibelius...