Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. The symphony's first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Moscow on February 22 (or the 10th using the calendar of the time) 1878, with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor.

Form:
The symphony is in four movements:

Andante sostenuto — Moderato con anima — Moderato assai, quasi Andante — Allegro vivo (F minor)
The symphony opens with horns and bassoons sounding a loud A-flat in unison. After a descending line by the bassoon and low brass, the woodwinds and trumpets join with a higher A-flat. As the music solidifies into large, slow syncopated chords, Tchaikovsky unleashes the musical equivalent of lightning bolts: two short fortissimo chords, each followed by a long measure of silence. As the music ebbs away, the woodwinds hint at the main melody, which is properly introduced by the strings at the Moderato con anima. (The score at this point is marked "In movimento di Valse", as it is written in 9/8.) The melody develops quite rapidly. Much later in the movement, the same A-flat is played by the trumpets. This movement is marked by continual introductions of the fate motif, the A-flat phrase. The motive serves as a separation between each section of the sonata—allegro form. At around twenty minutes in length in some performances, this is one of the longest symphonic movements by Tchaikovsky. It is also just short of the length of the remaining movements combined.

Andantino in modo di canzona (B flat minor)
This movement is introduced by the melancholy melody of the oboe. The music's impassioned climax is a reminder of the grieving phrases that dominated the opening movement.

Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato — Allegro (F major)
Strings play pizzicato throughout this movement. They are joined by the woodwinds later when an oboe's long, high A signals the start of the A-major Trio section. Later, the brass instruments come in, playing very quietly and staccato. The three groups (strings, woodwinds, and brass) are the only groups that play; there is no percussion in this movement except for the timpani, as in the previous movement. It ends quietly with pizzicato strings.

Finale: Allegro con fuoco (F major)
Here Tchaikovsky incorporates a famous Russian folk song, "In the Field Stood a Birch Tree", as one of its themes. In this movement, a hint of the A-flat of the first movement is present about halfway through, with the 'lightning bolts', with cymbals added, being much louder.

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Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 -- November 6, 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His wide-ranging output includes symphonies, operas, ballets, instrumental, chamber music and songs. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Born into a middle-class family, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant, despite his obvious musical precocity. He pursued a musical career against the wishes of his family, entering the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1862 and graduating in 1865. This formal, Western-oriented training set him apart from the contemporary nationalistic movement embodied by the influential group of young Russian composers known as The Five, with whom Tchaikovsky's professional relationship was mixed.

Creative Commons license: Public Domain.