Post by erik on Nov 26, 2022 19:24:56 GMT -5
Tchaikovsky is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight with a sizeable symphony which, like a similarly numbered symphony of Beethoven's, deals with the issue of human Fate.
Tchaikovsky: SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN E MINOR, OP. 64
Even though he is regarded the world over as the most popular composer to have ever come out of Russia, in his time Peter Tchaikovsky wasn’t necessarily all that well regarded when it came to symphonies. In his time, he would compose six numbered symphonies, plus the unnumbered “Manfred” Symphony, and a symphony in E Flat Major that was incomplete at the time of his death in 1893. But the main complaint made about those symphonies, both during his lifetime and for decades after that, was that they were often too balletic, whereas his three ballet scores were often considered too “symphonic”. The first three symphonies didn’t achieve any significant popularity in his lifetime, and wouldn’t until well into the 20th century, but the last three did (though not with American critics). The Fifth Symphony is just such an example, being in Tchaikovsky’s mind his depiction of Fate, as shown in the two prominent thematic motifs that make up the work’s first movement, and which pop up in the remaining three movements as well. Following the moody Adagio second movement, there is the third movement Waltz (substituting for the traditional Scherzo) that aligns the closest to the two ballets he had already composed (“Swan Lake”; “Sleeping Beauty”). The fourth movement wraps everything up with the principal themes once again being reprised, ending in a gloriously triumphant E Major. Composed during the summer of 1888 and premiered in St. Petersburg that fall, the Fifth Symphony, which eschews the battery of percussion present in all but the Polish Symphony (#3), remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works well into the 21st century.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/LEONARD BERNSTEIN (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
ROMEO AND JULIET FANTASY OVERTURE
Tchaikovsky: SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN E MINOR, OP. 64
Even though he is regarded the world over as the most popular composer to have ever come out of Russia, in his time Peter Tchaikovsky wasn’t necessarily all that well regarded when it came to symphonies. In his time, he would compose six numbered symphonies, plus the unnumbered “Manfred” Symphony, and a symphony in E Flat Major that was incomplete at the time of his death in 1893. But the main complaint made about those symphonies, both during his lifetime and for decades after that, was that they were often too balletic, whereas his three ballet scores were often considered too “symphonic”. The first three symphonies didn’t achieve any significant popularity in his lifetime, and wouldn’t until well into the 20th century, but the last three did (though not with American critics). The Fifth Symphony is just such an example, being in Tchaikovsky’s mind his depiction of Fate, as shown in the two prominent thematic motifs that make up the work’s first movement, and which pop up in the remaining three movements as well. Following the moody Adagio second movement, there is the third movement Waltz (substituting for the traditional Scherzo) that aligns the closest to the two ballets he had already composed (“Swan Lake”; “Sleeping Beauty”). The fourth movement wraps everything up with the principal themes once again being reprised, ending in a gloriously triumphant E Major. Composed during the summer of 1888 and premiered in St. Petersburg that fall, the Fifth Symphony, which eschews the battery of percussion present in all but the Polish Symphony (#3), remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works well into the 21st century.
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/LEONARD BERNSTEIN (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
ROMEO AND JULIET FANTASY OVERTURE