The DU Lounge

Brian Buggy OAM is conducting the SYO Philharmonic, http://syo.com.au

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 , Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. The symphony's first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Saint Petersburg on February 10 (Old Style) / February 22 (New Style) 1878, with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor.

Movement 4 (played here) is the Finale: Allegro con fuoco (F major). Here Tchaikovsky incorporates a famous Russian folk song, "In the Field Stood a Birch Tree" (Во поле береза стояла ), 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' being a lot louder, with cymbals added.

Tchaikovsky wrote, "The fourth movement: if within yourself you find no reasons for joy, then look at others. Go among the people. See how they can enjoy themselves, surrendering themselves wholeheartedly to joyful feelings. Picture the festive merriment of ordinary people. Hardly have you managed to forget yourself and to be carried away by the spectacle of the joys of others, than irrepressible fate again appears and reminds you of yourself. But others do not care about you, and they have not noticed that you are solitary and sad. O, how they are enjoying themselves! How happy they are that all their feelings are simple and straightforward. Reproach yourself, and do not say that everything in this world is sad. Joy is simple, but powerful. Rejoice in the rejoicing of others. To live is still possible".

All his life, Tchaikovsky retained a love for this symphony. At the end of 1878 he wrote: "I adore terribly this child of mine; it is one of only a few works with which I have not experienced disappointment". Ten years later, when referring to the symphony, he wrote "it turns out that not only have I not cooled towards it, as I have cooled towards the greater part of my compositions, but on the contrary, I am filled with warm and sympathetic feelings towards it. I don't know what the future may bring, but presently it seems to me that this is my best symphonic work"