Performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Giordano Bellincampi
Giordano Bellincampi conducts the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Photo: ©Adrian Malloch
Of his 4th Symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to his friend and fellow composer Sergei Taneyev:
"Of course my symphony is program music, but it would be impossible to give the program in words. . . . But ought this not always to be the case with a symphony, the most lyrical of musical forms? Ought it not to express all those things for which words cannot be found but which nevertheless arise in the heart and cry out for expression? In essence, my symphony is an imitation of Beethoven’s Fifth; I imitated not the musical ideas, but the fundamental concept."
This seems a nod to the parallels between the recurrent fanfare motif of his symphony and that most famous of four note phrases from Beethoven's – both inspired by the forces of fate.
To his patron Nadezhda von Meck he expanded on this theme: "The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony... This is fate, that fatal force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded, which hangs above your head like the sword of Damocles, and unwaveringly, constantly poisons the soul."
The symphony was completed on January the 19th, 1878 and premiered on the 4th of March.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 12 November 2020
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineers: Rangi Powick, Adrian Hollay
