Life and strife Fritz Reiner's Tchaikovsky - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON '... Reiner's no-nonsense approach avoids any hint of emotional excess.'

The music room in Tchaikovsky's country house at Klin is surrounded by scores and signed photos of fellow composers and artists. Central is a grand piano which was apparently always out of tune in Tchaikovsky's day. When I was allowed to play a bit of Tristan on it, the instrument was admirably adjusted to equal temperament so that, if I had had both time and ability, I could have played the whole of the '48' there with perfect confidence. As it was, I celebrated my modest Wagnerian excursion with some Russian dancing in the garden. Tchaikovsky might not have approved either of my activities when working on Symphony No 6 at his table in the small bedroom off. He started the symphony on 16 February 1893, finishing it in draft on 5 April despite a whirl of intervening conducting engagements. He outlined progress to his Davidov nephew, the eventual dedicatee: 'There will be much that is new in this symphony where form is concerned, one point being that the finale will not be a loud allegro, but the reverse, a most unhurried adagio. You cannot imagine the bliss I feel after becoming convinced that time has not yet run out and that it is still possible to work.'

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