The critics continued to pan his technique, but the audiences came to love Tchaikovsky's melodies, and by 1888, he was among the most famous composers in Europe, decorated by the Czar, and soon to embark on a tour to New York for the opening of Carnegie Hall.
It was time for another symphony -- his fifth -- and we'll hear it this week on Mozart's Attic. The critics didn't like it, but the years have been kinder to Tchaikovsky than to them.