Symphony No. 5 (Tchaikovsky)
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The Symphony No. 5 in E minor (Op. 64) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was composed between May and August 1888. It was first performed, under Tchaikovsky's own baton, in St Petersburg on November 6, 1888. It is in four movements:
- Andante — Allegro con anima
- Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
- Allegro moderato
- Andante maestoso— Allegro vivace
Similar to the Symphony No. 4, the piece is in cyclic form, using a "motto" theme; unlike the Fourth, however, the theme occurs in each movement (similar to the Manfred Symphony, which Tchaikovsky had finished less than two years before). The "motto" theme itself is derived from a passage in Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar—significantly, a passage using the words "turn not into sorrow". The motto theme has a funereal character in the first movement, but gradually transforms into a triumphant march, which dominates the final movement. Some critics, including Tchaikovsky himself, have considered it to be an insincere and even crude ending, but the symphony has gone on to become one of the composer's most popular works. The second movement, in particular, is considered to be Tchaikovsky: well crafted, colorfully orchestrated, and with a memorable melody for a horn solo. For some reason, possibly the very clear musical exposition of the idea of "ultimate victory through strife", the Fifth was very popular during World War II, with many new recordings of the work, and many symphonic performances during those years. Since the War it remains very popular, but has been somewhat eclipsed in popularity by the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies.
Critical reaction to the work was mixed, with some enthusiasm in Russia. Berezovsky wrote, "The Fifth Symphony is the weakest of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, but nevertheless it is a striking work, taking a prominent place not only among the composer's output but among Russian works in general. ...the entire symphony seems to spring from some dark spiritual experience...."
On the symphony's first performance in the United States, critical reaction, especially in Boston, was almost unanimously hostile. A reviewer for the Boston Evening Transcript, October 24, 1892, wrote:
- "Of the Fifth Tchaikovsky Symphony one hardly knows what to say ... In the Finale we have all the untamed fury of the Cossack, whetting itself for deeds of atrocity, against all the sterility of the Russian steppes. The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delirium tremens, raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!"
In New York reception was little better. A reviewer for the Musical Courier, March 13, 1889, wrote:
- "In the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony ... one vainly sought for coherency and homogeneousness ... in the last movement, the composer's Calmuck blood got the better of him, and slaughter, dire and bloody, swept across the storm-driven score."
Various passages from this symphony were used in the 1937 motion picture Maytime, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The music appears not only in some of the background score, but also in the form of a sung pastiche as a fictitious French opera entitled Czaritsa, "composed" by the character Trentini for the lead soprano (MacDonald).
The second movement was featured prominently in the 1986 film "Lucas".
[edit] Sources
- Review by Bogdanov-Berezovsky, paraphrased from The Symphonies of Brahms and Tschaikowsky in Score, Bonanza Books, New York, 1935.
- Newspaper reviews quoted in Nicolas Slonimsky, The Lexicon of Musical Invective. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1965. ISBN 0-295-78579-9
- Hans Keller: 'Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky', in Vol. I of 'The Symphony', ed. Robert Simpson (Harmondsworth, 1966).
