Symphony No. 5 in E Minor

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 (1888) is a celebration of triumph over adversity. The work opens with a quiet, insistent melody, a motif representing fate. This reappears in each movement but is gradually transformed, as the composer takes control of his destiny and finds his path. Tchaikovsky had difficulty beginning work and was unsure how to proceed. He proposed a narrative, with a struggle against fate shaping the first movement. This narrative was later abandoned, but the composer continued to explore the fate idea within a more traditionally structured symphony. The first movement gradually moves away from the sombre tone of the fate motif and builds toward joyful climaxes. The slow second movement opens with a bittersweet horn solo, one of Tchaikovsky’s most poignant melodies. The music gradually becomes more animated, with more propulsive themes introduced by the oboe and then the clarinet, but the reflective mood remains. The third movement is a waltz, similar to those of Tchaikovsky’s ballets. The orchestration is particularly delicate, with the waltz rhythms often lightly placed by the lower strings playing pizzicato (plucked). The fate theme appears as a sinister, half-forgotten memory in the second and third movements, but at the start of the finale it returns to centre stage, now transformed from a sombre minor key to a triumphant major. The finale is emotionally complex, quiet and brooding in some passages, wild and exuberant in others. But the climax is unambiguous, a joyful and spirited sendoff.