Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64

In comparison with a work like Brahms’s Fourth, which was written just a few years earlier, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony can scarcely be considered a model of classical integrity. In comparison, on the other hand, with his own Fourth Symphony, intimately confessional as it is, or with his suicidal Sixth, the Fifth is the most regular, the most Western, and the most evenly balanced. It occupies much the same place among his symphonies as the Seventh among those of Dvorak - who, as it happens, presented his Russian colleague with the autograph score of that work shortly after Tchaikovsky had expressed his admiration for it at a concert in Prague in February 1888. The Fifth Symphony was started within weeks of that event and completed four months later.

It is true that there is a fragment of a characteristically tortured programme for the work in Tchaikovsky’s note books: “Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (1) murmurs, doubts, lamentations… (2) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of Faith???” On the other hand, the programme clearly applies only to the first part of the work and even there Fate plays nothing like the dramatic role allotted to it in the Fourth Symphony. Indeed, once the two clarinets in unison have introduced the ominous motto theme in E minor in the Andante introduction, it isn’t heard again until half-way through the Andante cantabile.

The most disturbing aspect of the Allegro con anima is not the sinister character of the first subject introduced by clarinet and bassoon over the stealthy tread of the strings: it is more disturbing that the yearning second-subject melody - which enters molto più tranquillo on violins choking for breath on the first beat of every bar - is never allowed to fulfil its expressive potential. Cut off on a rising climax by the sinister E minor first subject on brass, the second-subject melody is not featured in the development section and is again cut short when it reappears in the recapitulation.

It does, on the other hand, find some sort of consummation in the Andante cantabile , much of which is serenely poised where the first movement so devoutly yearned to be. The lovely melody introduced by first horn over quiet string harmonies in the opening bars sets the lyrical scene. A quicker new theme introduced by oboe is somewhat less at ease but, reintroduced by violins and then taken up by the whole orchestra, it achieves a climax of unshakeable confidence. True, there is a more agitated middle section and the motto theme does make a fff intrusion - which is disturbing but not so serious, however, as to prevent an enraptured return of the horn melody, now on the expressive G-string of the violins and set against a pretty woodwind counterpoint. The motto theme intrudes also on the recapitulation of the oboe melody but only to be answered by the sweetest recollection of that theme in the closing bars.

The Valse in A major enshrines a happy memory of a visit to Italy and an apparently irresistible young Florentine street singer called Vittorio. Tchaikovsky transcribed Vittorio’s Pimpinella at the time, adapted it for one of his songs, and incorporated an attractive phrase from it in the main theme of this movement. The staccato semi-quaver material in the middle section is beautifully integrated with the waltz on its return towards the end and the once ominous slow-march motto theme meekly complies with the prevailing waltz-time in the closing bars.

Beginning with a fearless Andante maestoso version of the motto theme, the Finale turns back to E minor for the main Allegro vivace . The theme here is a trepak, a vigorous Cossack dance in duple time clearly not unrelated to the motto theme, which makes a dramatic re-entry at the height of the development section. Now fully purged of the fear once associated with it, the motto theme celebrates its hard-won positive attitude in a triumphant maestoso episode in the coda, where it is followed by a brilliant E major fanfare based on the first subject of the Allegro con anima - the one sinister element not so far absorbed into Tchaikovsky’s brave new world.

Gerald Larner©

On a visit to Prague in 1888, only two or three months before he started work on his Fifth Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky was present at an evidently fine performance of Dvorak’s Seventh in D minor and, moreover, was presented with the autograph score of the work by the composer himself. Though the experience might not have had any direct effect on the shape taken by his Symphony in E minor, it is interesting that Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, like Dvorak’s Seventh, is the most regular, the most Western, the most evenly balanced of his later symphonies.

It is true that there is a fragment of a characteristically tortured programme in Tchaikovsky’s note books: Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (1) murmurs, doubts, lamentations… (2) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of Faith??? On the other hand, the programme clearly applies only to the first part of the work and even there Fate plays nothing like the dramatic role allotted to it in the Fourth Symphony. Indeed, once the two clarinets in unison have introduced the motto theme in E minor (with its ominous descending scale) in the Andante introduction, it isn’t heard again until half-way through the Andante cantabile.

The most disturbing aspect of the Allegro con anima is not the sinister character of the first subject introduced by clarinet and bassoon over the stealthy tread of the strings: it is more disturbing that the yearning second-subject melody - which enters molto più tranquillo in D major on violins choking for breath on the first beat of every bar - is never allowed to fulfil its expressive potential. Cut off on a rising climax by the sinister E minor first subject on brass, the second-subject melody is not featured in the development section and is again cut short when it reappears in the recapitulation.

It does, on the other hand, find some sort of consummation in the Andante cantabile , which is nearly all in D major, the key area where the first movement so devoutly yearned to be. The lovely melody introduced by first horn over quiet string harmonies in the opening bars is in D major. The slightly quicker oboe theme is in F sharp major but, after the cellos have adopted the horn melody in D major, the oboe theme is re-introduced by violins in that same key and the whole orchestra takes it up to a massively confident D major climax. True, there is a more agitated middle section beginning in F sharp minor and the motto theme does make a fff intrusion - but, interestingly, in such a way as to make it easy for the violins to enter in D major with the horn melody set against a pretty woodwind counterpoint. The motto theme intrudes also on the recapitulation of the oboe melody but only to be answered by the sweetest recollection of that theme in D major.

The Valse in A major enshrines a happy memory of a visit to Italy and an apparently irresistible young Florentine street singer called Vittorio. Tchaikovsky transcribed Vittorio’s Pimpinella at the time, adapted it for one of his songs, and incorporated an attractive phrase from it in the main theme of this movement. The staccato semi-quaver material in the middle section is beautifully integrated with the waltz on its return towards the end and the once ominous slow-march motto theme meekly complies with the prevailing waltz-time in the closing bars.

Beginning in G major with a fearless Andante maestoso version of the motto theme, the Finale turns back to E minor for the main Allegro vivace. The theme here is a trepak, a vigorous Cossack dance in duple time evidently not unrelated to the motto theme: certainly, Tchaikovsky makes a very neat point of comparing the scalic element in the two themes just after the motto makes its first dramatic re-entry in C major. This is at the height of the development section of a construction which achieves in its coda a full-scale maestoso treatment of the motto theme in E major followed by a brilliant fanfare based on the first subject of the Allegro con anima - the one sinister character not so far absorbed into Tchaikovsky’s brave new world.

Gerald Larner©

In comparison with a work like Brahms’s Fourth, which was written just a few years earlier, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony can scarcely be considered a model of classical integrity. In comparison, on the other hand, with his own Fourth Symphony, intimately confessional as it is, or with his suicidal Sixth, the Fifth is the most regular, the most Western, and the most evenly balanced. It occupies much the same place among his symphonies as the Seventh among those of Dvorak - who, as it happens, presented his Russian colleague with the autograph score of that work shortly after Tchaikovsky had expressed his admiration for it at a concert in Prague in February 1888. The Fifth Symphony was started within weeks of that event and completed four months later.

It is true that there is a fragment of a characteristically tortured programme for the work in Tchaikovsky’s note books: “Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (1) murmurs, doubts, lamentations, reproaches against xxx. (2) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of Faith???” On the other hand (quite apart from the problem of whether xxx should or should not be identified as a reference to the composer’s homosexuality) the programme clearly applies only to the first part of the work and even there Fate plays nothing like the dramatic role allotted to it in the Fourth Symphony. Indeed, once the two clarinets in unison have introduced the ominous motto theme in E minor in the Andante introduction, it isn’t heard again until half-way through the Andante cantabile.

The most disturbing aspect of the Allegro con anima is not the sinister character of the first subject introduced by clarinet and bassoon over the stealthy tread of the strings: it is more disturbing that the yearning second-subject melody - which enters molto più tranquillo on violins choking for breath on the first beat of every bar - is never allowed to fulfil its expressive potential. Cut off on a rising climax by the sinister E minor first subject on brass, the second-subject melody is not featured in the development section and is again cut short when it reappears in the recapitulation.

It does, on the other hand, find some sort of consummation in the Andante cantabile , much of which is serenely poised where the first movement so devoutly yearned to be. The lovely melody introduced by first horn over quiet string harmonies in the opening bars sets the lyrical scene. A quicker new theme introduced by oboe is somewhat less at ease but, reintroduced by violins and then taken up by the whole orchestra, it achieves a climax of unshakeable confidence. True, there is a more agitated middle section and the motto theme does make a fff intrusion - which is disturbing but not so serious, however, as to prevent an enraptured return of the horn melody, now on the expressive G-string of the violins and set against a pretty woodwind counterpoint. The motto theme intrudes also on the recapitulation of the oboe melody but only to be answered by the sweetest recollection of that theme in the closing bars.

The Valse in A major enshrines a happy memory of a visit to Italy and an apparently irresistible young Florentine street singer called Vittorio. Tchaikovsky transcribed Vittorio’s Pimpinella at the time, adapted it for one of his songs, and incorporated an attractive phrase from it in the main theme of this movement. The staccato semi-quaver material in the middle section is beautifully integrated with the waltz on its return towards the end and the once ominous slow-march motto theme meekly complies with the prevailing waltz-time in the closing bars.

Beginning with a fearless Andante maestoso version of the motto theme, the Finale turns back to E minor for the main Allegro vivace . The theme here is a trepak, a vigorous Cossack dance in duple time clearly not unrelated to the motto theme, which makes a dramatic re-entry at the height of the development section. Now fully purged of the fear once associated with it, the motto theme celebrates its hard-won positive attitude in a triumphant maestoso episode in the coda, where it is followed by a brilliant E major fanfare based on the first subject of the Allegro con anima - the one sinister element not so far absorbed into Tchaikovsky’s brave new world.

Gerald Larner©

On a visit to Prague in 1888, only two or three months before he started work on his Fifth Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky heard an evidently fine performance of Dvorak’s Seventh in D minor and, moreover, was presented with the autograph score of the work by the composer himself. Though the experience might not have had any direct effect on the shape taken by the Symphony in E minor, it is interesting that Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, like Dvorak’s Seventh, is the most regular, the most Western, the most evenly balanced of his symphonies.

It is true that there is a fragment of a characteristically tortured programme in Tchaikovsky’s note books: “Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro (1) murmurs, doubts, lamentations, reproaches against xxx. (2) Shall I throw myself into the embraces of Faith???” On the other hand (quite apart from the problem of whether xxx should or should not be identified as a reference to the composer’s homosexuality) the programme clearly applies only to the first part of the work and even there Fate plays nothing like the dramatic role allotted to it in the Fourth Symphony. Indeed, once the two clarinets in unison have introduced the motto theme in E minor (with its ominous descending scale) in the Andante introduction, it isn’t heard again until half-way through the Andante cantabile.

The most disturbing aspect of the Allegro con anima is not the sinister character of the first subject introduced by clarinet and bassoon over the stealthy tread of the strings: it is more disturbing that the yearning second-subject melody - which enters molto più tranquillo in D major on violins choking for breath on the first beat of every bar - is never allowed to fulfil its expressive potential. Cut off on a rising climax by the sinister E minor first subject on brass, the second-subject melody is not featured in the development section and is again cut short when it reappears in the recapitulation.

It does, on the other hand, find some sort of consummation in the Andante cantabile , which is nearly all in D major, the key area where the first movement so devoutly yearned to be. The lovely melody introduced by first horn over quiet string harmonies in the opening bars is in D major. The slightly quicker oboe theme is in F sharp major but, after the cellos have adopted the horn melody in D major, the oboe theme is re-introduced by violins in that same key and the whole orchestra takes it up to a massively confident D major climax. True, there is a more agitated middle section beginning in F sharp minor and the motto theme does make a fff intrusion - but, interestingly, in such a way as to make it easy for the violins to enter in D major with the horn melody set against pretty woodwind counterpoint. The motto theme intrudes also on the recapitulation of the oboe melody but only to be answered by the sweetest recollection of that theme in D major.

The Valse in A major enshrines a happy memory of a visit to Italy and an apparently irresistible young Florentine street singer called Vittorio. Tchaikovsky transcribed Vittorio’s Pimpinella at the time, adapted it for one of his own songs, and incorporated an attractive phrase from it in the main theme of this movement. The staccato semi-quaver material in the middle section is beautifully integrated with the waltz on its return towards the end and the once ominous slow-march motto theme meekly complies with the prevailing waltz-time in the closing bars.

Beginning in G major with a fearless Andante maestoso version of the motto theme, the Finale turns back to E minor for the main Allegro vivace . The theme here is a trepak, a vigorous Cossack dance in duple time evidently not unrelated to the motto theme: certainly, Tchaikovsky makes a very neat point of comparing the scalic element in the two themes just after the motto makes its first dramatic re-entry in C major. This is at the height of the development section of a construction which achieves in its coda a full-scale maestoso treatment of the motto theme in E major followed by a brilliant fanfare based on the first subject of the Allegro con anima - the one sinister character not so far absorbed into Tchaikovsky’s brave new world.

Gerald Larner©