In his Fifth Symphony, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky highlights his struggle with destiny and his own life. His inner conflicts, the Romantic spirit of the age, the proverbial Russkaya dusha (Russian soul) and moving pathos are reflected in this heartrending testimony to a life’s tragedy. Principal Conductor Yutaka Sado and the Tonkunstler Orchestra bring their own insights to their reading of the Fifth, the «Symphony of Fate», as it is also known. No less profound is the First Violin Concerto by Dmitry Shostakovich, which he dared not publish in  1948, the year of its composition – too great was the risk that his individual style would be condemned by the cultural apparatchiks of the Soviet regime. A delightful contrast is provided by Joseph Haydn’s First Symphony.