Symphony No. 3 (Tchaikovsky) - Composition and Initial Performances

Composition and Initial Performances

Tchaikovsky recorded little about the composition of his Third Symphony. He penned the work quickly, between June and August 1875. After its premiere, he wrote Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, "As far as I can see this symphony presents no particularly successful ideas, but in workmanship it's a step forward." Not long before composing this symphony, Tchaikovsky had received a thorough drubbing from Nikolai Rubinstein over the flaws in his First Piano Concerto, the details of which he would later recount to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. This incident may have influenced Tchaikovsky to be more cautious in following academic protocol, at least in the symphony's outer movements.

The symphony was premiered in Moscow in November 1875 under the baton of the composer's friend and champion, Nikolai Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky, who attended rehearsals and the performance, was "generally satisfied" but complained to Rimsky-Korsakov that the fourth movement "was played far from well as it could have been, had there been more rehearsals." The first performance in Saint Petersburg, given in February 1876 under Eduard Nápravník, "went off very well and had a considerable success," in the composer's estimation. Nápravník, who had conducted the first performance of the revised overture–fantasia Romeo and Juliet three years earlier, would become a major interpreter of Tchaikovsky's music. He would premiere five of the composer's operas and, among many traversals of the orchestral works, conduct the first performance of the Pathétique symphony after Tchaikovsky's death.

The first performance of the Third outside Russia was scheduled for October 1878 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Hans Richter. Richter, an admirer of Tchaikovsky's work, had already conducted Romeo and Juliet there in November 1876. However, after the symphony had been rehearsed, the Philharmonic Society cancelled the performance, citing the work's apparent difficulty and lack of public familiarity with the composer. The fact that Romeo had been hissed by the audience and unfavorably reviewed by Eduard Hanslick might have also factored into its decision.

The British premiere of the Third Symphony was led by Sir August Manns at the Crystal Palace in London in 1899. Manns dubbed the work with the sobriquet Polish at that time.