Well I've decided to break my Summer hiatus as July is now officially over. Also seeing as it is a Friday, I suppose it makes it obvious what the post will be about.

I've had my head around the music of Tchaikovsky lately, more specifically his piano concerto in b minor and the final three symphonies. As I've already posted on the Fourth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony and Daniel Barenboim conducting, I figured I would continue the pursuit chronologically and move on to this fifth.

The Fifth Symphony in E minor, Op.64 was originally my personal favorite of the final three the composer wrote. Although I've since seen the brilliance behind the fourth and the sixth, the fifth is perhaps closer personally if only for the second movement, and a few brief moments in the finale which give me goosebumps. Sometimes I wish I played a brass instrument just to get that feeling.

Part 1


Part 2


Composed between May and August of 1888 (200 years ago, I swear that wasn't planned), Tchaikovsky gave the premiere himself on November 8 that fall. Like the fourth symphony, the fifth is a cyclical work as the "motto" theme is treated and seen more than once in the symphony. Unlike the Fourth where the opening fanfare is heard in the first and fourth movement, the theme is heard in all four movements in the Fifth.

The Symphony is also somewhat programmatic, as was with the Fourth. While the composer himself gave the theme of "Fate," to the fourth symphony, he didn't designate a program for the Fifth, but it clearly occupies a theme, if only for a different motivation.

While all three of his final works deal with the subject, the fifth is perhaps the only one that transforms the idea of fate through the course of the symphony. The first movement opens with the theme, taken from a passage in Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, translated meaning "turn not into sorrow," in the tonic e minor and is treated in a funeral march setting, opening into a more optimistic fanfare as the opening movement progresses, having established the idea of that "fate" theme. Progressing slowly through each movement, subject to tragedy, beauty and dance, by the time the Symphony has finished one could obviously tell the outlook Tchaikovsky had of the subject

His own notebook sheds light on the idea of the "program" for the fifth having wrote:
Introduction: Total submission before fate, or, what is the same thing, the inscrutable designs of Providence.
Allegro. 1) Murmurs, doubts, laments, reproaches against...
II) Shall I cast myself into the embrace of faith???
A wonderful programme, if only it can be fulfilled"

Part 3

unheralded beauty contained within this video!

Part 4


Tchaikovsky's last question in the notebook perhaps leads to a familiar struggle the composer had with himself about the ability in his writing. As had happened several times before, including working on the fourth symphony and his first piano concerto in their beginning stages, Tchaikovsky was plagued by self-doubt, often convinced himself that is creative powers were deserting him.

Things were slow to start, and although the inspiration soon began to gather momentum, before starting work on the instrumentation Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron Mme von Meck that there was "none of the former lightness and constant readiness of material" in the work. However, in time his opinion of the symphony began to improve and he came to love it.

Tchaikovsky evolved his own view of the symphony substantially between the fourth and fifth symphonies. His treatment of the "motto" subject, incorporated into all four movements is a major step forward from the Fourth. While the Fourth almost had that subset of a "safety net" with the work being designated a program, the Fifth took in stride the necessity to have each succeeding paragraph or appearance of the theme progressed naturally. While in the Fourth Symphony finale, the motto theme returns before the height of the Coda, whereas in the Fifth it is treated in every movement with more enthusiasm. Tchaikovsky threw in more themes, seen at its greatest in the second movement, thus increasing the potential for the music and its development, there were still some "seams" but they occurred less frequently and now had a more dramatic effect.

Part 5

like a surging power wave, the energy flowing is breathtaking!

Part 6

finale at hand!

It is remarkable how the idea of fate presented from the Fourth symphony is taken on such a journey in the Fifth. Treated with such absolution at the beginning, tragedy in the second movement with a brief interlude of dance and temptation in the third movement to the ultimate feeling of triumph as witnessed in the finale, Tchaikovsky is at his most dramatic and emotional clarity and yet, the sense of a declared theme for this work is faint at the most.

In the years of the Twentieth Century the Fifth found a new popularity, possibly for its ultimate idea of "ultimate triumph through strife," the symphony was quite popular during the days of World War II. Many recordings and performances took place, one of the most notable performances was by the Leningrad Radio Symphony Orchestra during the Siege of Leningrad.

City leaders had ordered the orchestra to continue its performances to keep the spirits high in the city. On the night of October 20, 1941 they performed the Fifth Symphony at the city's concert hall and it was broadcast live to London. As the second movement began bombs started to fall nearby, the Orchestra continued to play till the work was finished.

The post on the Fourth was strong in my mind because the videos featured a strong performance from the Chicago Symphony and Daniel Barenboim. This time in keeping with that trend I was lucky to find a great recording on Youtube with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony, not necessarily a perfect recording but the emotional range from Bernstein is amazing, especially in the second movement(second half of part 2, all of part 3).

It is quite an exploration musically, and one with an outlook that from where it finishes, would never be seen again in the Sixth and final Tchaikovsky Symphony.