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by MARTIN BOOKSPAN
TCHAIKOVSKY'S FIFTH SYMPHONY
PIOTR ILYITCH TCHAIKOVSKY, perhaps more than, any other composer in Western civilization, has suffered from the snobbism of self-appointed taste makers who find the music of the Russian master too open emotionally, too naively uncomplicated, too melodically memorable-in short, too (horrifying thought!) popular. But the music of Tchaikovsky has a larger public today than ever before, with a wider spectrum of his works becoming known and performed. Once obscure symphonic poems are now available in multiple recorded performances, and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies--repertoire staples from the time they were written-are now being joined by their three predecessors in the Tchaikovsky canon.
--"Tchaikovsky brings back the motto theme so that the blaze of the key of E Major carries all before it." --
It is to the Fifth Symphony, however, that I would direct the reader in search of his first Tchaikovsky symphony recording. The Fifth played a crucial role in the composer's creative life, for in the decade between the creation of his Violin Concerto (1878) and the Fifth Symphony (1888) he had been unable to produce any symphonic work of significant proportions. There were those, Tchaikovsky among them, who wondered if he had written himself out. After several early performances of the Fifth Symphony in St. Petersburg and Prague, Tchaikovsky wrote to his benefactress, Nadejda von Meck: "I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure. There is something repellent, something superfluous, patchy and insincere, which the public instinctively recognizes." History quickly re versed Tchaikovsky's harsh appraisal; the Fifth, a noble work in the "Victory Through Struggle" mold of Beethoven's Fifth, is now indisputably one of the cornerstones of the orchestral literature.
The reasons for its popularity are not hard to find. First, the symphony overflows with radiant and inspired melodies. One among many: the meltingly beautiful French horn solo that forms the principal theme of the slow movement (some years ago, when Tin Pan Alley was discovering Tchaikovsky, this theme took on a new identity on the air and in the nation's jukeboxes as Moon Love). Then there is the previously mentioned "Victory Through Struggle" aspect. At the very beginning of the symphony the clarinets state a somewhat sinister theme in E Minor; subdued and reflective, it recurs in the succeeding movements as a sort of nightmarish idie fixe.
It is heard again at the very opening of the last movement, but this time it is startlingly changed; it is now in the major rather than the minor mode, thus assuming a completely new and heroic cast. And, after a whole series of exhilarating adventures, Tchaikovsky once again brings back the motto theme at the very end of the movement, this time triumphantly in the brass so that the blaze, the splendor of the key of E Major carries all before it.
MOST among the many available recorded performances of the Fifth Symphony steer a neutral course between faithful literalness and capricious self-indulgence. That way, of course, lies routine dullness. My own taste runs to the extremes: either the tightly organized, brilliantly played objectivity of a Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon 2530198, cartridge 89443, cassette 3300217), an Antal Dorati (Mercury SG 75056), or a Seiji Ozawa (RCA LSC 3071, cartridge R8S-1119); or the delirious abandon of a Leonard Bernstein (Columbia MS 6312), a Zubin Mehta (London CS 6606), or--most outrageous of all Leopold Stokowski (London SPC 21017, cartridge M 95017). Stokowski's performance could, I suppose, be thought sheer madness.
He pulls the music this way and that, he adds some touches of orchestration all his own, and he makes cuts and emendations here and there. But how the music lives and breathes in his performance, what a cumulative impact it has! All the above-mentioned recordings are in the full-price category. There are a number of performances available on budget labels, among which the choice ones are the performances conducted by Josef Krips (London STS 15017) and George Szell (Odyssey Y 30670).
The Krips account is something of a surprise-an unexpectedly full-blooded approach to the music, well played by the Vienna Philharmonic and richly recorded.
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Also see:
AUDIO BASICS---Glossary of Technical Terms-25
CHOOSING SIDES, IRVING KOLODIN