Prom 67: Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky & Behzad Ranjbaran

Have you ever felt a sense of elation at the end of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony? In many ways, I find the Fifth as intensely painful and autobiographical as the “Pathétique”, with the finale seeing the composer nobly ‘putting on a brave face’, accepting fate’s hand stoically. The last pages often play through a mist of tears, the triumphant march ringing helplessly hollow. Not so here.