Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
\u201cThis 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.\u201d With this description, Tchaikovsky gave his patron Nadezhda von Meck a rare insight into the inspiration behind what he called the \u201cnucleus\u201d of his 4th symphony. Despite the fact that Tchaikovsky\u2019s music is famously emotional, he usually did not like describing his programs using words. This is one of the contradiction of Tchaikovsky\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s life, his disastrous marriage, and his unique correspondence with Nadezhda\xa0Von 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 \u201cmy symphony\u201d but \u201cour symphony.\u201d So today we\u2019re 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\u2019s marriage to Antonina Miliukova, and his relationship with Nadezhda von Meck. We\u2019ll also talk about the reception to this symphony, which, well, let\u2019s just say it was anything but positive.\xa0Join us!