Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82

Sibelius's Fifth Symphony (1915, revised 1916 and 1919) stands apart from his other symphonies in its visionary formal compression and its sense of transcendent natural grandeur. The opening movement undergoes a unique metamorphosis, beginning as a slow introduction before gradually accelerating into a scherzo — a process Sibelius achieved only after three successive revisions. The finale's 'swan hymn,' inspired by a diary entry about a flight of sixteen swans, is one of the most overwhelming moments in all Romantic orchestral music, its great horn theme circling over churning strings before arriving at the astonishing isolated hammer-blow conclusion: six massive chords separated by rests, as if the music were being chiseled in stone. Leonard Bernstein called it the most perfect symphonic ending ever written.