Symphony no. 5 in E minor, op. 64

Ten years separate the Fifth Symphony from the Fourth, years in which Tchaikovsky lost close friends, drafted his will and turned over what he called the eternal questions. On 15 April 1888 he set down a programme in his diary: complete resignation before Fate, or before the inscrutable design of providence — murmuring, doubts, complaints, reproaches. He wrote the symphony quickly between May and August and conducted the first performance in St Petersburg on 6 November. Reviews were divided; for a time he disliked the piece himself, and the meaning of its finale is still argued over.