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I don't want to be limited by Germanic-only concepts of structure

I disagree about Tchaikovsky's supposed weaknesses in large-scale structures. In that respect, I highly recommend the Leonard Bernstein lecture on the Pathétique Symphony included in the DG "Original Masters" set:



Among Bernstein's points:

If Tchaikovsky was such a great melodist and not really a symphonist, why didn't he just stick to writing songs or operas? What are melodies doing in a symphony anyway? Can Tchaikovsky's melodies really be symphonic themes? Indeed, some of Tchaikovsky's melodies (such as the famous lyrical subject in the first movement of the Pathétique) are not developed but are there for structural reasons only (as a manifestation of the second key area in the exposition, returning in the home key in the recapitulaion). However, the rest of the thematic material in the first movement of the Pathétique is comprised of the short motives which lend themselves to the metamorphoses associated with symphonic development. And in fact, the development of these motives is far more symphonic than Tchaikovsky's critics pretend. Furthermore, if we went through the other three movements of this symphony, we would uncover the same findings, i.e., that there is real symphonic development going on that, for whatever reason, some listeners are not sensitive to. Nevertheless, one will hear the naysayers claim that Tchaikovsky's large scale symphonic writing lacks the inevitability of Beethoven or, indeed, Brahms. But Tchaikovsky used the Germanic symphonic forms for his own purposes - for maximum emotional engagement and for shattering contrasts. In other words, Tchaikovsky is often seeking variety, rather than unity. Does that make his symphonic writing less valid - or less "structural"? And for all its emotional contrast, the Pathétique exhibits remarkable unity when analyzed at the motivic level (with almost all of these motives deriving from scales and step-wise motion). And this unity extends even beyond the first movement - in fact, there's a unity of motives in all four movements of the work. Out of these unified motives grow themes, counterpoint, bass lines - in fact all the elements of the symphonic texture.

Actually, Bernstein has quite a bit more to say beyond this in defense of Tchaikovsky as a symphonist, and, by implication, as a structuralist. But I think the point has been made: it's just not fair to claim that Tchaikovsky had no understanding of structure.

And if I may return to the Brahms symphonies for a moment, I often feel that Brahms is pulling "stunts" in his symphonic writing. Take the Third Symphony, a work I really love (my favorite among the four), but which is compromised by his stunt of ending all four movements "piano". Especially in the last movement, I feel that this "soft ending" is really shoe-horned onto the music - a Procrustean Bed if there ever was one. Or take the last movement, the Passacaglia, of the Fourth Symphony: first of all, as you no doubt know, Brahms took this theme from Bach, but he added an extra note (a kind of leading tone to the dominant). Jeez, do I ever hate this! It makes the theme, which was so natural and satisfying as Bach left it, into a kind of synthetic, self-conscious concoction that just cries out "look what I can do!". And going beyond the theme itself, Brahms's "stunt" of shoe-horning this movement into the passacaglia form leaves us with a structure that I find to be far less satisfying than, for instance, the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony.

Don't get me wrong - I love Brahms too, but just not unreservedly. For instance, Brahms's Second Piano Concerto is a more satisfying work for me than any of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos. But let's give Tchaikovsky his due and refrain from saddling him with the "no understanding of structure" mantle.

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