Symphony No. 6
Pathétique
Tchaikovsky's final symphony and his most personal, ending not in triumph but in a slow movement that fades into silence. A work about grief, and possibly a farewell.
Tchaikovsky composed the Pathétique in 1893 and conducted its premiere in St. Petersburg on 28 October, only nine days before his death. That closeness has fed endless speculation about the music's meaning. The title came from his brother Modest, whose Russian word for it means passionate or emotional and passed into French as Pathétique. The symphony is dedicated to his nephew Vladimir Davydov, known as Bob, of whom he was deeply fond.
Its most radical feature is its shape. Instead of ending with a fast, affirming finale, the symphony closes with a slow movement, the Adagio lamentoso, which sinks steadily into darkness and dies away in the low strings over a soft stroke of the tam-tam. It is Tchaikovsky's only symphony to end in a minor key. The second movement is a waltz in an off-balance five-beat metre, gentle but unable to settle, and the third is a driving march that builds to such a brilliant climax that audiences often mistake it for the end. The orchestration is vivid and exact, ranging from near silence to overwhelming force. The Pathétique stands as one of the most emotionally direct symphonies ever written.
Movements
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky.