Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.5 in E minor (1888)

There’s a gap of three or four years either side of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony 5 in terms of symphonic works – the Manfred of 1885, and Symphony 6 in 1893 (there’s a sketch of another in 1892 that didn’t come to anything.

Tchaikovsky was worried that he had dried up as a composer – it has no programme, although it does have a theme that is used throughout. Of the Symphony’s first movemet, he wrote that it depicts “a complete resignation before fate, which is the same as the inscrutable predestination of fate.” Critics have said that if Beethoven Symphony 5 is Fate knocking at the door, Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 is Fate trying to get out.

It’s scored modestly for double woodwind, large brass, timpani and strings. There are four movements;

• Andante – Allegro con anima (E minor) – Molto più tranquillo (D major – E major)
• Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza (B minor – D major)
• Valse. Allegro moderato (A major) (Trio in F# minor)
• Finale: Andante maestoso (E major) – Allegro vivace (E minor) – Meno mosso (E major)

It opens with the main theme on low clarinet, and the first movement gives way to two typically well-written melodies.

The second movement opens with an extraordinary low string chord passage that eventually moves to D major, with a beautiful and challenging horn solo, accompanied by countermelodies in the clarinet. The oboe introduces a second theme – the tranquil opening belies the storm in the middle of the movement.

The third movement replaces the traditional Minuet with a Waltz – the opening theme in the strings is later developed by the oboe, with a more angular melody following in the bassoon. The Trio has an energetic semiquaver motif. The repeat of the Waltz has the main symphonic theme in the bassoon.

The final movement works through various themes (some developed from previous material), but its’ the transformation of the original minor clarinet melody into a triumphant major brass chorale the heralds the end of a Symphony which Tchaikovsky thought a failure for a long time.