As nicknames go in classical music, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3, "Polish," has one of the most misleading. Tchaikovsky wrote the lesser-known work in 1875, but when it was performed in England at the turn of the past century, it was suddenly referred to as the "Polish Symphony."

"This title appears to have been suggested by Sir August Manns on account of the Polish rhythms occasionally used, and the composer did not raise any objection," writes Edwin Evans in his book on the composer in Dent & Co.'s The Master Musicians series published in 1906. "There is in reality little that is Polish in the work."

"It is just because the last movement is called tempo di polacca," says Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda. "But it is just to remind people that it is a dance tempo in 3/4 [meter], with a Polish rhythm. The melody ideas are not belonging to the Polish dance."

Mr. Noseda (pronounced No-SAY-da), who will conduct the work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend, is referring to the polonaise, which is a distinctly Polish dance. But as he and others point out, the symphony's second movement is marked alla tedesca, so the Third Symphony could have easily have had "Germanic" as its nickname.

The point is not to prove Tchaikovsky's Third isn't a Polish work, but to let it tell its own story unencumbered by a false pretense. A cautionary tale comes from the work's English premiere:

"The writer of the analytical notes, seizing upon this circumstance, invited the audience to weave quite a romantic program round the symphony, suggesting that it [portrayed] Poland mourning in her oppression and rejoicing in her regeneration," writes Mr. Evans. "All this is the purest fantasy."

Mr. Noseda, who studied with the Russian star conductor Valery Gergiev, is steeped in Tchaikovsky's music and adores the five-movement Third Symphony-- the composer's only symphony in a major key. Well, at least part of it:

"This is an underrated symphony," he says. "The inner movements are incredibly well written. [It has] one of the most beautiful slow movements Tchaikovsky ever wrote in his life." That would be the middle movement, an andante elegiaco.

But Mr. Noseda acknowledges some of the reasons why the Third Symphony has not gained a place in the standard repertoire like Tchaikovsky's Fourth, Fifth and Sixth symphonies.

"There are some weaknesses in the first movement," he says. "The development could be better. [The problems] are more connected with structure."

In his monograph on the composer in the Oxford University Press' own Master Musician series, the music scholar Roland John Wiley posits that Tchaikovsky's Third is a victim of ambiguous genre identification: "It is not folkish, nor classical, nor Berliozian/Lisztian, or particularly Tchaikovskian in light of his other symphonies."

That includes his Symphony No. 2, "Little Russian" -- a nickname that did fit, because the composer used Ukrainian folk songs. Mr. Wiley also wonders if Tchaikovsky consciously tried to fashion the Third Symphony as a divertimento -- lighter works that also have five movements -- but then later tried to give it more weight by writing a fugue in the finale and other elements.

"The result, more pretentious than a divertimento, less grand than a symphony, leaves the work's genre identity suspended in the breach."

Mr. Noseda suggests another way to view the Third.

"This one is the most connected with the theater world, with ballet," he says. "The second movement is dance and the finale is another dance."

Tchaikovsky's skill with ballets such as "Nutcracker," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake" is unassailable, and the Third Symphony's five movements also are akin to the standard dance suite.

Listening to the Third in this light -- rather than forcing it to conform to the largely Germanic ideal of rigorous symphonic development that arose after Beethoven -- allows for the work to emerge on its own terms. There's "color in the key changes," says Mr. Noseda, buoyant dance-like themes and, yes, even some touches of the composer's trademark Russian melancholy.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.