Of the 6 symphonies that Tchaikovsky composed, it is quite common to group 1-3 as the first group and 4-6 as the second group. The 4th symphony here presents a defining departure from the 1st group of symphonies in that Tchaikovsky starts to be confident of his own style to depart away from the strict Germanic symphony style and combined it with the more tuneful romantic era. In fact the 1st movement is quite long at about 20 minutes that some would classify the first movement as a symphonic poem with 3 additional movements instead of a symphonic work with 4 movements.
The second unique feature of this symphony being that Tchaikovsky actually penned an accompanying commentary to the composition which is rather rare and one of the reasons could be that he is dedicating this symphony to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck and the commentary could be something requested by her. This act like a sort of a double edged sword. For one, we have access to the original intent of the composer to the various passages. However, it also constrained subsequent music interpreters the latitude to impute their own reading of the symphony. The beauty of symphonic work lies partly with the mystique and multifaceted properties that makes it evergreen.
Thridly, there is some parallel between the symphony and Beethoven's Symphony No 5. Both start with a signature motif of ta ta ta ta that is repeated in various form throughout the symphony. Tchaikovsky himself made mention of this parallelism and also gave a an explanation that both symphonies are about fate and both happen to be fairly melancholic and penned in the minor scale.
As with most artistic works, its premier at Saint Petersburg by Nikolai Rubenstein was not very well received. Because Tchaikovsky was not present at the premier, he only had second hand account from Rubenstein that the symphony was well played and keeping him in the dark about comments from some critics that found the symphony brilliant in parts but less impressive overall. However, this symphony has grown in popularity that it is quite a staple in the programs of many concerts as well as being widely recorded as well.
This symphony was also composed against Tchaikovsky personal backdrop of his failed marriage and could therefore account for the strong measure of melancholic nature. The other famous piece that Tchaikovsky composed right after this work was his all time famous and only violin concerto and perhaps there are shades of this symphony present in his violin concerto.
The few recordings that I have are as follows:
1.Neeme Jarvi conducting Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
2.Kurt Sanderling conducts Leningrad Symphony. Sonically not as good as on initial hearing as it was done in MONO but after a few listening, my opinion of MONO recording begin to change.
3.Karajan with Berlin Philmoniker because Karajan is also known to be a Tchaikovsky authority. You cannot fault his technically prudence approach to this piece tempered with a good dose of emotions.
Of these recordings, the version by Neeme Jarvi is sonically better that the other two being a more recent recording and also being done on SACD. However, my favorite is still the interpretation by Karajan seems to bring out the melancholy in the piece very well without being technically too off mark in my humble opinion.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter