Harrowing sounds of Fate: Tchaikovsky's passionate Overture to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is considered his first great masterpiece. The Fifth Symphony, in contrast, originated at the zenith of his artistic career. But mentally Tchaikovsky swung wildly between exhilaration and deep despair. The Fifth is a powerful creation that unfolds impressively between melancholy beauty and radiant waltzes, struggling between premonitions of death and triumph of life, the whole pervaded by a distinctive "Fate" motif.