Piotr Tchaikovsky composed his Fifth Symphony between May and August 26, 1888, and conducted the first performance in Saint Petersburg on November 17 of that year. Theodore Thomas, who would found the Chicago Orchestra two years later, introduced the work to America at a concert in New York on March 5, 1889.
I was a member of the string section of several orchestras, and there is no better way to learn the musical aspects of a composition than by playing the parts and determining how the parts fit together.
Here is an excellent recording of this symphony. Vasily Petrenko is celebrating his appointment as Chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic.
