We tend to think of Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies as a group of masterpieces, but in time the Fourth is much closer to the Third than to the Fifth, which only followed after eleven years. In this long gap Tchaikovsky wrote plenty of music, even including a symphony (Manfred); but the importance of these years was primarily the consolidation of his reputation. Abroad his fame was spreading, and his brother Modest was able to write: “The Tchaikovsky of 1885 seemed a new man compared with the nervous and misanthropic Tchaikovsky of 1878.” In 1888 he embarked upon a European tour that even included engagements as a conductor; though he remained to the end doubtful about his powers, he managed to overcome his earlier panic about conducting, and the first performance of the Fifth took place under his own direction in St Petersburg in November of that year. The evening was a triumph, but afterwards he persistently had pangs, veering wildly between affection and regard for it, and a distressing conviction that it was artificial and repellent. However, in January 1889 he set out on his second concert tour of the West, and on arriving at Hamburg was gratified to discover that Brahms had stayed behind an extra day in order to hear him rehearse his new symphony. After the highly successful performance there he wrote to Modest: “But the most pleasing thing of all was that the symphony ceased to strike me as bad, and that I have fallen in love with it again.” It has remained a firm favourite in concert programmes.

The only serious error that is commonly encountered is the brass note in IV 372.

sources

A  Autograph manuscript (1888), in the Russian National Museum of Music, Moscow, viewable online at IMSLP

E,P  First edition score and parts, published by P. Jurgenson in 1888

Br  Full score (with bar numbers), published by Breitkopf & Härtel c.1930

Um  Urtext score, published in 1963 by State Music Publishers, Moscow as part of the Soviet Tchaikovsky Complete Edition (bar numbers in II overlook one system of 4 bars, so “110”–“180” are in fact 114–184)