Dear Tchaikovsky,

I am a huge fan of your music. I love it. I listen to it. I heard the rumors that you hate your Nutcracker Suite, but it's a huge hit nowadays, especially around Christmas. Your symphonies are so wonderful...


But let's get down to business. It's about your First Symphony.


Now, I could be biased because I've only (sight) read it once with the orchestra so admittedly it's going to sound kind of weird... but so far it's not my favorite. I heard your teachers didn't like it either, and told you that you should throw it out. But, out of spite, you kept it. That's cool with me; after all, everyone hated Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and thought he was crazy too. But you broke my heart yesterday when we read through your First Symphony.


We started with the fourth movement because you didn't write a part for the trombones for the first three movements. Fair enough, Beethoven did that too. Then we went to the first movement, and read that. There were some interesting lines, it was ok... and then we went to the third movement because you didn't write a trumpet part for the second movement. Ok, that's cool too...


But, Tchaik, let's face it.... The part you wrote for trumpet in the third movement is unacceptable.

Yeah, I took this with my phone, so it's not a good picture. But you still get the point. Do you see how much we rest during this movement? Don't get me wrong, in the Sibelius Violin Concerto we rest a lot, too, but at least in that one we got to play something substantial. But here, for example, we rest for over 167 measures, play two notes over the course of four bars, and then go back to resting.


It's a good thing I'm married, or this would put a serious damper in our relationship. That is not cool, Tchaik, not cool at all. And through this experience I think I can answer why your teachers hated your first movement.... They were secretly brass players.


Sincerely, Ashley