String Quartet No. 1 in D Major

Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 was written early in his career, and was first heard at a concert of his music in 1871. The benignly rocking theme that opens the work earned it the nickname “Accordion”, though as the movement progresses, it sprouts increasingly intricate offshoots and tendrils of excitability. The gently melancholic slow movement is based on the Ukrainian folk song “Sidel Vanya na divane” (Vanya was sitting on the couch), played by the first violin and tenderly decorated with cello pizzicatos. The spirit of folk music also propels the brief, incisive “Scherzo” movement, which bristles with sharply accented writing, and the playful, exuberant finale. While the String Quartet No. 1 was generally well-received by early audiences, it was the plangent second movement that attracted particular attention. It reportedly moved the great novelist Tolstoy to tears, and was soon being performed in a variety of different arrangements.