Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 in G minor, 'Winter Daydreams'

Tchaikovsky began his first symphony in March 1866, and it left him suffering from insomnia and a nervous breakdown. He wrote to his brother that his 'nerves are in a mess again.' He showed the unfinished score to his former teachers Anton Rubinstein and Zaremba, but was harshly criticized and refused a performance of the whole work. In the end, the full symphony was premiered in Moscow in February 1868 under Nikolai Rubinstein and was a great success.

Along with the subtitle 'Winter Daydreams,' the first movement is titled 'Dreams of a Winter Journey' and the second 'Land of Gloom, Land of Mists,' but Tchaikovsky left no separate explanation of these titles. Later he called the piece 'a sin of my sweet youth' and confessed that he still felt affection for it.