Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture & Symphony No. 5 in E Minor

Featuring

Volker Hartung
Junge Philharmonie Köln
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Performer Biography

Volker Hartung, the conductor, studied viola at the Juilliard School of Music and the California Institute of the Arts, and conducting with Sergiu Celibidache.

Notable Performances

During the 1941 Siege of Leningrad, the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra performed Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, continuing to play even as bombs fell nearby, with the performance broadcast live to the UK.

Compositional Technique

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture, despite its name, is musically a symphonic poem in sonata form, based on three aspects of the love story.

Composition History

Tchaikovsky's friend Balakirev, a talented composer, suggested he write a piece based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and provided detailed structural and musical suggestions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Tchaikovsky described the introduction to his Symphony No. 5 as "a complete resignation before fate, which is the same as the inscrutable predestination of destiny."

Compositional Technique

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 has a cyclical form, featuring a recurring main theme that transforms from tragic to triumphant across all four movements.

Critical Reception

Despite Tchaikovsky considering the last movement of his Symphony No. 5 a "failure" after its second performance, it became one of his most popular works.