In 1878, Tchaikovsky completed his Fourth Symphony, a work with a message in which he tried to capture his own life, with imagination and fate as central themes—because, as he himself said, “the power of fate is too strong for the individual to resist.”

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Tchaikovsky was convinced that this symphony was one of his best works. Ten years after its premiere, he wrote in a letter: “It seems my appreciation for it has not cooled, as has happened with most of my compositions. On the contrary, it fills me with warm and pleasant feelings. I don’t know what the future will bring, but at this moment, it feels like my best symphonic work.”

Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor opens with a dramatic, hammering blow from the orchestra, followed by the pianist launching into a cascade of powerful chords. “The piano is woven into the orchestral score in the most delicate way,” Clara Schumann wrote in her diary. “It is impossible to imagine one without the other.”