Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

“This is Fate, the force of destiny, which ever prevents our
pursuit of happiness from reaching its goal, which jealously
stands watch lest our peace and well-being be full and cloudless,
which hangs like the sword of Damocles over our heads and
constantly, ceaselessly poisons our souls.” With this
description, Tchaikovsky gave his patron Nadezhda von Meck a rare
insight into the inspiration behind what he called the “nucleus”
of his 4th symphony. Despite the fact that Tchaikovsky’s music is
famously emotional, he usually did not like describing his
programs using words. This is one of the contradiction of
Tchaikovsky’s music for the modern listener: we have these
letters where Tchaikovsky described the programs or stories
behind many of his most famous pieces, and yet Tchaikovsky
himself would not have necessarily wanted us to know them.


Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony is at the center of all of these
contradictions. It is a symphony in the grand Romantic tradition
of the symphony, with all of the technical trappings that a
symphony requires. It is also a piece that reflects the growing
trend at that time towards symphonic poems, especially in the
massive first movement. It is also a piece that seems to be
inspired directly by two events in Tchaikovsky’s life, his
disastrous marriage, and his unique correspondence with
Nadezhda Von Meck, his patron who he corresponded with for
13 years without ever meeting her. This relationship was at its
beginning when Tchaikovsky wrote this symphony, and so strong
were his feelings of companionship with her that he often wrote
that this 4th symphony was not “my symphony” but “our symphony.”
So today we’re going to go through this symphony on two levels,
the technical, explaining all of what makes this symphony so
tragic, powerful, exciting, and beloved, and also the historical,
going into Tchaikovsky’s marriage to Antonina Miliukova, and his
relationship with Nadezhda von Meck. We’ll also talk about the
reception to this symphony, which, well, let’s just say it was
anything but positive. Join us!