The Suite consists of four Movements: (1) Elegy; (2) Melancholy Waltz; (3) Scherzo; (4) Theme and Variations. The last is a lengthy piece-twelve Variations in Tchaikovsky's most brilliant vein, showing him as one of the deftest writers in this form, and a magnificent orchestrator. The Polonaise, the last of the Variations, is the longest and most developed.
Like many of the works of this self-doubting man, the Suite was produced in anxiety, with many a dubious moment, and the inevitable query 'Am I played out?' His moods of exaltation were often shot with fear. When he had finished the work, he wrote: 'A work of greater genius than the new Suite never was. My opinion of the new-born composition is thus optimistic. God knows what I shall think of it a year hence....'