Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op.64

Andante – Allegro con anima
Andante cantabile e con alcuna licenza
Valse: Allegro moderato
Finale: Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace – Moderato assai e molto maestoso

Tchaikovsky’s symphonies are spread throughout his career and portray the emotional life of the composer with remarkable accuracy and power. There are the two early symphonies, the "Winter Daydreams" and "Little Russian" – fresh, melodious, and written, like so many 19th Century Russian symphonies, in the spirit of folk music. There is the graceful, classically-proportioned "Polish" symphony; the fruit of Tchaikovsky’s growing engagement with Western classical forms, and in particular, the music of Mozart. And then there is the final "trilogy" of the 4th, 5th and 6th symphonies, written between 1878 and 1893, which re-enacts, with uncanny closeness, the tragic drama of Tchaikovsky’s emotional life over these years - his bitter struggle with, and eventual defeat by that which he called "Fate". In each of these three symphonies a distinctive motto-theme portrays "Fate", shaping the musical structure and turning what would otherwise be loose-limbed symphonic forms into epic emotional dramas. The emotional power of these symphonies was too much for many contemporary listeners; to hear an individual wrestling so uninhibitedly with his emotions in response to an abstract "Fate" seemed melodramatic and self-indulgent, and the symphonies initially had cool receptions. But their sincerity, colour, and melodic sweep won through, and a century later their absolute emotional authenticity and conviction has been validated by an understanding of the true nature of Tchaikovsky’s "Fate" – his homosexuality. His desperate struggle for love, in a society and era in which his feelings, if openly expressed, would have seen him imprisoned if not exiled, was no "self-indulgence" but a genuine matter of life and death. It has become clear in the last 20 years that Tchaikovsky’s early death was not of cholera, as the Tsarist and later Soviet regimes insisted, but suicide, forced upon him by a bizarre "honour-court" when his relationship with a young nobleman threatened to become public knowledge. The slow finale of the 6th Symphony, premièred just days before his death, is one of the most uncanny examples of prescience in all music.

The 5th Symphony is the most relaxed and optimistic of the final "trilogy". It still has its share of drama – the stakes in Tchaikovsky’s struggle with "Fate" remained as high as ever – but over half of its music is based in warm, major keys, and its structure is more conventional – some commentators have suggested that Tchaikovsky was trying to match Brahms, whom he had met early in 1888. Between the panic-laden 4th Symphony, and the abysmal despair of the 6th, it seems almost an oasis of calm. Its motto-theme reflects this; it is the slow, melancholy melody first heard on clarinets at the very opening of the symphony, almost unobtrusive beside the aggressive fanfares of the 4th Symphony. Its presence is less dramatic, more insidious – a quiet, ever-present source of anxiety rather than an overwhelming threat, although, as its appearances in the second movement show, it is still capable of terrifying power. But it ends the symphony as a triumphant march, transformed into the major key, and the overall programme of the symphony is a journey from despair to hope. On a purely structural level, it helps tie the movements and sections of the symphony together as a coherent whole – Tchaikovsky acknowledged that structure was not his strong point, writing of this symphony, with a characteristic lack of self confidence, that "it has a mountain of padding; an experienced eye can detect the thread in my seams and I can do nothing about it". The motto-theme provided a useful structural support, but Tchaikovsky did himself an injustice – the symphony is held together by a sweep of emotion which transcends mere technical considerations, and, furthermore, the thematic evolution which takes place during the symphony – march-like and waltz-like melodies in the first movement become an explicit waltz (third movement) and an explicit march (finale) – displays a unique and original conception of symphonic form. But to dwell on these matters is unnecessary – the symphony is so gloriously listenable and emotionally involving that analysis becomes redundant. The outer movements chart the emotional voyage from gloom to celebration, the first ending quietly, the last with a grandiose statement of the transformed motto-theme and a brilliant coda for full orchestra. In between comes the ardent Andante cantabile, opening with a magnificent romantic melody for solo horn and building to two surging climaxes (Tchaikovsky’s expression mark for the second – con desiderio e passione, with desire and passion – tells its own story), shattered each time by the motto theme in its most violent aspect. A graceful waltz, deliciously scored, takes the place of a scherzo – a moment of relaxation, darkened only in its final bars where the motto theme appears briefly as an ominous reminder of the unavoidable.
Tchaikovsky wrote the 5th Symphony at his country house at Grovolske in the summer of 1888 and it was first performed in St. Petersburg on November 17th that year.

R.G. Bratby, 1999


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