Tchaikovsky Symphony #5.
I learned this amazing work when I was 14 years old. I was accepted to my first orchestra in New York, and I sat last chair, second violins. What an opportunity that was back at that time! Why? This is the way that I first learned the orchestral repertoire.
While Tchaikovsky wrote the famous Symphony #6, subtitled “Pathetique”, his Fifth is every bit as sad and moving.
The first movement is titled “Andante”, and when this concludes 16 minutes later, the composer is not satisfied, so he follows with the second movement also titled “Andante Cantabile”. Only when that is over does Tchaikovsky bring us happier music in the form of the Waltz of the third movement.
This is music with great feeling and lots of emotion. Tchaikovsky wraps it up with the final movement that has many sections and ends on more positive, hopeful sounds.
The San Francisco Symphony will release a live recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture, on the Orchestra’s own Grammy Award-winning SFS Media Label on May 5, 2015. Here’s a small extract of the music conclusion:
Tags: Tchaikovsky, Symphony #5, Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco, Symphony, Romeo and Juliet