Symphony No.5 - Walter Piston

National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic conducted by David Alan Miller

I - Lento - Allegro con spirito - Lento: 0:00
II - Adagio: 8:45
III - Allegro lieto: 17:25

Piston's Fifth Symphony was commissioned by the Juilliard School of Music on the occasion of their 50th anniversary. It was completed in 1954, being premiered on February 24, 1956 by the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Jean Morel. The work responds to a formula also found in symphonies No.7 & 8 as well: a relatively expansive first movement, a grave, meditative slow movement and a brief, lightweight finale. The style of this work is more conservative, more neo-romantic than neo-classical, surprisingly so for a Boulanger pupil.

The first movement is written in a modified sonata form. It opens with the slow introduction with a tense flute melody over the tremolos of the strings, containing serial and diatonic elements, an aspect that will be repeated throughout the work. The increasing tension marks a tempo change to the Allegro. The first theme is vigorously dissonant and rhythmic. The second theme is more chromatic and lyrical, being introduced by the oboe. There is no recapitulation of the themes after the development, the slow and chromatic introduction returns at the end in varied form as the coda.

The second movement is constructed as a theme and a set of variations. It begins with a twelve-tone row, the intervals of which are related to motives from the first movement. The main theme, presented by the violins, is also related to the intervals of this row, but is more diatonic in construction and character, supported by a twelve-tone bass line. Woodwinds enter (beginning with clarinet and then oboe) to add color and texture. The variations are continuous rather than sectional. The music rises to a powerful climax before thinning out and concluding with another pizzicato twelve-tone idea from the low strings.

The lively finale is written as a rondo, and is the most diatonic of the three movements. As is usual with Pistonian finales, it is drivingly rhythmic. The impression of a strong "American" sound is produced in this movement by a spaciousness of melodies and textures. The main theme, in C major and with the rhythm of a dance, alternates with calmer episodes marked by jaunty syncopations in the classic American tonal style. These jazz-like figures are indebted to up-tempo Broadway cabaret songs. The work ends with the main theme in a decidided way.

Picture: "City activities with subway" (1931) by the American painter Thomas Hart Benton.

Sources: https://bit.ly/3tnE6IG and https://bit.ly/3tk8jZg