About the quartet and the symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, that they "were filled with a host of clever things but ... imbued with a dryly pedantic character".
Sobre o cuarteto e a sinfonía Chaikovskii escribiulle á súa mecenas Nadezhda von Meck que «estaban cheas de cousas intelixentes mais imbuídas dun carácter seco e pedante».