Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony — written in 1877 at the age of thirty-seven — offers itself as an intensely personal statement. Dramatically shaped and brilliantly orchestrated, it captures a theatrical quality and orchestral color that shaped the composer’s symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini, written just a year earlier. The Fourth opens unequivocally with the thrust of a brass fanfare — the ‘fate’ motive that is to reappear in the last movement — then flows with the effortless quality that characterizes Tchaikovsky’s great, generously melodious ballet scores. The second movement lingers over one of the composer’s most poignant melodies, and the third — the Scherzo — offers a delightful fantasy from this master orchestrator: the charming Pizzicato ostinato, a unique moment in the entire orchestral literature. Reprint of the Breitkopf & Härtel edition.
R305.00
