by Mike Telin

When it comes to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, conductor Robert Trevino believes the composer’s Fifth is perhaps the most perfect in its construction and musical development. “In a way it’s almost the touchstone for his symphonic canon,” Trevino said during a recent interview. On Saturday, August 5 at 8:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, the Fort Worth, Texas native will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut in a concert featuring Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Behzod Abduraimov as soloist, and the Symphony No. 5.

Trevino, who was named Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra in 2016, said that he sees the symphony as part of a continuum that exists in the composer’s last four symphonies. “I think the Fourth, Fifth, the Manfred, and the Sixth are all dealing with fundamentally the same problem, and finding a different way of solving it,” he said, explaining that beginning with the Fourth Symphony the composer enters into a period of ever-present doom.

“I can’t help but feel that comes from his profound isolation, because he lived in a time when homosexuality was not just frowned upon, it was simply not allowed and I imagine that was very difficult for him. [Read more…]