Though initially received with critical acclaim, the sonata has struggled to maintain a solid position in the modern repertoire.
[3]When Tchaikovsky's violinist friend Iosif Kotek arrived at Clarens, the composer's efforts quickly became focused on his Violin Concerto, and work on the sonata was discontinued.
It was premiered in a concert of the Russian Musical Society by pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, much to the composer's delight: The Sonata was performed... with such unattainable perfection, that I could not have stayed to listen to anything more, so I left the hall completely enraptured.
The themes presented are undoubtedly Russian, but the composer's strict observance of Western musical tradition is still prevalent.
The third movement is a brief, fast-paced Scherzo, and foreshadows some of the techniques later used by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, mainly in its melodic direction.