Wiener Symphoniker / Zimmermann / Treviño

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor received its nickname »Fate Symphony« from the supertitle of the first movement: »Introduction. Complete surrender to fate or, what is the same, to the unfathomable counsel of Providence. – Allegro: murmuring, doubts, complaints, reproaches.« Together with the Fourth and Sixth, the Fifth is one of Tchaikovsky's most popular symphonies today, even though he himself had doubts about it at first. As far as his career was concerned, Tchaikovsky was at his peak at the time of its composition, but personally he was repeatedly shaken by deep crises, by »fate«.

Frank Martin's violin concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann
By contrast, Frank Martin's Violin Concerto, composed in 1951, has received little attention to date. The Swiss composer combined impressionism with twelve-tone music, and the concerto does not really fit into either of these categories. It begins airily, with echoes of Martin's contemporary works, including an opera based on Shakespeare's »The Tempest«. The violins and solo flute begin like a gentle dawn, before the solo violin delicately unfolds without virtuoso splendour. The soloist in this concert by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Treviño is violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, who shines with both technical brilliance and his unmistakable tone.