RSNO: Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony Usher Hall Edinburgh 6th February 2026 Review
RSNO Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was proof (as if any was needed) that this work is still hugely popular with audiences as this concert was sold out.
There was a change to the usual format of music this evening as there were two, instead of three, works performed, but as that other work was the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor by Johannes Brahms, that more than made up for that.
Performing this opening work were Noah Bendix-Balgley (Violin) and Bruno Delepelaire (Cello), two musicians who, apart from being world-class soloists in their own right, have worked together on many occasions, and here that understanding of just how the other approaches music like this, took this performance with the RSNO to a special level.
Brahms originally wrote this work to try and heal a rift between himself and a former friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. The work would also feature a friend of both men, cellist Robert Hausmann. Fortunately, Joachim agreed to accept the work/offer of reconciliation, and this Double Concerto for Violin and Cello was first performed in Cologne on 18th October 1887 with Brahms conducting.
Sadly, the critical reception of this work was not positive. In fact it was so negative that Brahms never wrote another work like this one. Thankfully, it is time and the audiences who are the ultimate judges of any artistic work, and I hope that if he could somehow see this work being performed tonight, Brahms would be having the last laugh on all of his detractors, and why not as this, over its 32 minutes performance time, is an outstanding creative achievement for Brahms.
On its initial performance, joyless was a word often used to describe this work, and part of that reaction may be Brahms’ choice to write it in a minor key. Personally, I am puzzled why anyone could have described this work in this way as it full of surprises and emotion, and here Brahms is in one movement playing with the violin and cello being an octave apart from each other - the same difference between male and female voices. Was Brahms treating these instruments as human voices in the same way that contemporary guitarists often work? Tonight's performance by Noah Bendix-Balgley, Bruno Delepelaire, and the RSNO, with Thomas Søndergård conducting revealed this work in all of its many layers and interactions.
The title work from tonight's concert, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, took up the second part of the programme, and at 47 minutes performance time, it was simply a treat for lovers of Tchaikovsky's music, with conductor Thomas Søndergård adding so much to the detail and emotions that this work requires to be at its best.
In this fifth symphony, Tchaikovsky weaves a recurring musical theme across all four movements, but each of these is very different in the colours and emotions that it evokes in the listener. This is Tchaikovsky creating in music a story of against all odds overcoming fate itself and there is, I suspect, a lot of the composer’s own fears woven into this work, and his liking for fusing together musical structures from countries other than Russia is evident throughout this work.
To many critics at the time when this work was first performed, in St Petersburg on 17th November 1888, it seems that he could do nothing right in their opinion. His hugely successful scores for ballets were deemed to be too symphonic and his symphonies were deemed to be too much like ballet scores. To many, his work was too cosmopolitan and not Russian enough, so when the initial audience response to his fifth symphony was a mixed one, as he so often did with his work, Tchaikovsky interpreted this as a negative reaction once again. Again, over time, audiences have world-wide have made this one of the most popular works in classical music.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There was a change to the usual format of music this evening as there were two, instead of three, works performed, but as that other work was the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor by Johannes Brahms, that more than made up for that.
Performing this opening work were Noah Bendix-Balgley (Violin) and Bruno Delepelaire (Cello), two musicians who, apart from being world-class soloists in their own right, have worked together on many occasions, and here that understanding of just how the other approaches music like this, took this performance with the RSNO to a special level.
Brahms originally wrote this work to try and heal a rift between himself and a former friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. The work would also feature a friend of both men, cellist Robert Hausmann. Fortunately, Joachim agreed to accept the work/offer of reconciliation, and this Double Concerto for Violin and Cello was first performed in Cologne on 18th October 1887 with Brahms conducting.
Sadly, the critical reception of this work was not positive. In fact it was so negative that Brahms never wrote another work like this one. Thankfully, it is time and the audiences who are the ultimate judges of any artistic work, and I hope that if he could somehow see this work being performed tonight, Brahms would be having the last laugh on all of his detractors, and why not as this, over its 32 minutes performance time, is an outstanding creative achievement for Brahms.
On its initial performance, joyless was a word often used to describe this work, and part of that reaction may be Brahms’ choice to write it in a minor key. Personally, I am puzzled why anyone could have described this work in this way as it full of surprises and emotion, and here Brahms is in one movement playing with the violin and cello being an octave apart from each other - the same difference between male and female voices. Was Brahms treating these instruments as human voices in the same way that contemporary guitarists often work? Tonight's performance by Noah Bendix-Balgley, Bruno Delepelaire, and the RSNO, with Thomas Søndergård conducting revealed this work in all of its many layers and interactions.
The title work from tonight's concert, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, took up the second part of the programme, and at 47 minutes performance time, it was simply a treat for lovers of Tchaikovsky's music, with conductor Thomas Søndergård adding so much to the detail and emotions that this work requires to be at its best.
In this fifth symphony, Tchaikovsky weaves a recurring musical theme across all four movements, but each of these is very different in the colours and emotions that it evokes in the listener. This is Tchaikovsky creating in music a story of against all odds overcoming fate itself and there is, I suspect, a lot of the composer’s own fears woven into this work, and his liking for fusing together musical structures from countries other than Russia is evident throughout this work.
To many critics at the time when this work was first performed, in St Petersburg on 17th November 1888, it seems that he could do nothing right in their opinion. His hugely successful scores for ballets were deemed to be too symphonic and his symphonies were deemed to be too much like ballet scores. To many, his work was too cosmopolitan and not Russian enough, so when the initial audience response to his fifth symphony was a mixed one, as he so often did with his work, Tchaikovsky interpreted this as a negative reaction once again. Again, over time, audiences have world-wide have made this one of the most popular works in classical music.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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