This symphony is often given the nickname ‘Little Russian’ (‘Malorossiya’), but this is a misnomer, referring neither to ‘little’ nor to Russian, but instead to the fact that in its outer movements, Tchaikovsky used Ukrainian song melodies, and in Tsarist times Ukraine was often called ‘Malorossiya’. Of all his major works, this is the most joyous and extrovert. It was first performed in Moscow in February 1873 under Nikolai Rubinstein, and was received so enthusiastically that it had to be repeated later that season. A piano duet arrangement by the composer was published by Bessel in 1874. However, already on the very day after the premiere Tchaikovsky had confessed he was not entirely satisfied with the first three movements, and now he hesitated over the expense of engraving the full score, procrastinated, and did nothing about it until seven years later. At the very end of 1879 he was in Rome and eagerly set about revising the first and third movements; he also made a big cut in the finale, and already in January 1880 a new version of the symphony was ready, was published immediately, and performed in St Petersburg in February 1881. He destroyed the score of the original 1872 version, but it was reconstructed after his death from the orchestral parts and published in 1954 in the Russian complete Tchaikovsky edition, together with (in 1956) his arrangement for piano duet.

sources

A  Autograph score (1879/80), whereabouts unknown

E,P  First edition score and parts, published by Bessel, St Petersburg in 1880

F  Full score, published by State Music Publishers, Moscow in 1946

Um  Urtext score, published in 1954 by State Music Publishers, Moscow as part of the Soviet Tchaikovsky Complete Edition; many corrections were made for the first time

R  New edition of parts, published by State Music Publishers, Moscow c.1960

M  Miniature score, published by State Music Publishers, Moscow in 1962; essentially a reprint of Um, but further corrections were made