Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony has three things against it. First, like his First and Third, the Second has the misfortune to be considered one of the Russian composer's lesser symphonies, which, in comparison with the mighty Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth, it certainly is. Second, like his Third, the Second has the misfortune of bearing a nickname associated with a geographical area, in this case, "Little Russia" (aka, the Ukraine), and not with an emotional condition, in the case of the Sixth Symphony, "Pathétique", which gives the casual listener a less easy entry into the work's state of mind. Third, the Second is the shortest and most objective of his symphonies, qualities less likely to appeal to most of the composer's fans for whom emotional subjectivity is one of the central appeals.