I. Andante sostenuto; moderato con anima in movimento di valse
II. Andantino in modo di canzona
III. Scherzo: “pizzicato ostinato”; allegro
IV. Finale: allegro con fuoco
If Tchaikovsky had a programme in mind when he composed his Fifth and
Sixth symphonies, he never published it to the world; but for the Fourth
he wrote an elaborate one. Does the music gain by it? To us the Fourth
symphony is interesting because it seems nearer to the Russian spirit
and life as portrayed by Dostoivsky than the later ones. Even the
ornamentation, the arabesques, that in another’s music would seem as so
many excrescences, perhaps frivolous, are here in place. The neurotic,
self-torturing Tchaikovsky was for years obsessed by the thought of
death and the charnel house. Fate was to him not a word to be associated
only with the story of Œdipus or Pelop’s line. The Fourth symphony is a
personal document, revealing the man, as his letters revealed him. It is
easy to pick flaws in it; to dismiss it as a suite, not a symphony; to
complain of this or that; but the music with its deep-rooted melancholy,
its noisy attempt to forget the inevitable end, its drunken hilarity,
its dark and sinister sadness, is not easily to be put aside, not easily
to be forgotten.
* * *
Tchaikovsky composed this symphony during the winter of 1877-78. He had
lost interest in an opera, _Othello_, for which a libretto at his own
wish had been drafted by Stassov. The first draft was finished in May,
1877. He began the instrumentation on August 23 of that year, and
finished the first movement September 24. He began work again towards
the end of November. The _andantino_ was finished on December 27, the
_scherzo_ on January 1, 1878, and the _finale_ on January 7, 1878.
The first performance was at a symphony concert of the Russian Musical
Society, Moscow, February 22, 1878. Nicholas Rubinstein conducted.
The dedication of this symphony is as follows: “_À mon meilleur ami_”
(To my best friend), and thereby hangs a tale.
This best friend was the widow Nadejda Filaretovna von Meck. Her maiden
name was Frolovsky. Born in the village Snamensk, government of
Smolensk, February 10, 1831, she married in 1848 an engineer, and for
some years knew poverty. Her courage did not give way; she was a
helpmeet for her husband, who finally became famous and successful. In
1876 her husband died. She was left with eleven children and a fortune
of “many millions of rubles.” Dwelling at Moscow, fond of music, she
admired beyond measure certain works by Tchaikovsky. Inquiring curiously
concerning his character as a man and about his worldly circumstances,
she became acquainted with Kotek, a pupil of Tchaikovsky in composition.
Through him she gave Tchaikovsky commissions for transcriptions for
violin and pianoforte of some of his works. There was an interchange of
letters. In the early summer of 1877 she learned that he was in debt.
She sent him 3,000 rubles; in the fall of the same year she determined
to give him yearly the sum of 6,000 rubles, that he might compose free
from pecuniary care and vexation; but she insisted that they should
never meet. They never spoke together; their letters were frequent and
intimate. Tchaikovsky poured out his soul to this woman, described by
his brother Modeste as proud and energetic, with deep-rooted principles,
with the independence of a man; a woman that held in disdain all that
was petty and conventional; pure in thought and action; a woman that was
compassionate, not sentimental.
The composer wrote to her on May 13, 1877, that he purposed to dedicate
this symphony to her. “I believe that you will find in it echoes of your
deepest thoughts and feelings. At this moment any other work would be
odious to me; I speak only of work that presupposes the existence of a
determined mood. Added to this I am in a very nervous, worried, and
irritable state, highly unfavorable to composition, and even my symphony
suffers in consequence.” In August, 1877, writing to her, he referred to
the symphony as “yours.” “I hope it will please you, for that is the
main thing.” He wrote in August from Kamenka: “The first movement has
cost me much trouble in scoring it. It is very complicated and long; but
it seems to me it is also the most important. The other movements are
simple, and it will be fun to score them. There will be a new effect of
sound in the _scherzo_, and I expect much from it. At first the strings
play alone and _pizzicato_ throughout. In the trio the wood-wind
instruments enter and play alone. At the end all three choirs toss short
phrases to each other. I believe that the effects of sound and color
will be most interesting.” He wrote to her in December from Venice that
he was hard at work on the instrumentation: “No one of my orchestral
pieces has cost me so much labor, but on no one have I worked with so
much love and with such devotion. At first I was led on only by the wish
to bring the symphony to an end, and then I grew more and more fond of
the task, and now I cannot bear to leave it. My dear Nadejda
Filaretovna, perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to me that this
symphony is no mediocre piece; that it is the best I have yet made. How
glad I am that it is our work, and that you will know when you hear it
how much I thought about you in every measure! If you were not, would it
ever have been finished? When I was in Moscow and thought that my end
was about to come [There is a reference here to the crazed condition of
Tchaikovsky after his amazing marriage to Antonina Ivanovna Milioukov.
The wedding was on July 18, 1877. He left his wife at Moscow, October 6,
of that year.] I wrote on the first draft: ‘If I should die, please send
this manuscript to N. F. von Meck.’ I wished the manuscript of my last
composition to be in your possession. Now I am not only well, but,
thanks to you, in the position to give myself wholly to work, and I
believe that I have written music which cannot fall into oblivion. Yet
it is possible that I am wrong; it is the peculiar habit of all artists
to wax enthusiastic over the youngest of their productions.” Later he
had chills as well as fever over the worth of the symphony.