Symphony No. 4 is a work that is very pastoral in its feel. The opening movement paints pictures of wonderful Swiss summer days with birdsong in the air. There is no introspection here, merely the enjoyment of having a good time on a lovely day. There are wonderful instrumental textures in this music. Dark clouds appear in the sky in the second movement which is more meditative but the mood never descends any further than that. Playfulness and joviality return in the final movement and there are also some very unusual rhythmic patterns in there.
Symphony No. 5 opens with a grand orchestral chorale that is full of exuberance but the music soon descends into something of despair yet somehow I find it not to be depressing. The second movement opens with a quizzical melody played on the woodwinds; Life mocking the composer? This theme is further elaborated upon and there definitely is something of the tragic in there. Reading from the liner notes Honegger suffered long nights of insomnia and dark thoughts during the writing of this symphony and the ultimate irony is that he literally ran out of paper during the writing process. The final movement opens with something of a sense of defiance and this is portrayed through the brass section for me but there is a lot of turmoil in there too. The work ends in a perplexing way; there is no sense of either acceptance or resignation or indeed triumph or hope. There is no resolution; it just more or less ends.
This is not positive, happy clappy music but rather music that is introspective, sometimes descending into gloom and despair. However it is some of the most intriguing modern music that I have listened to it has to be said.
There are three other orchestral pieces in this set. One of them (Pacific 231) I have discussed before and the other two are equally exciting to listen to.
