Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor (“Pathétique”) was premiered in October 1893, just nine days before the composer’s mysterious death. The official explanation was cholera, but questions arose due to the public’s shock. Soon, alternate theories began to emerge, the strongest that Tchaikovsky had killed himself after being outed as gay. There has never been enough evidence to draw any definitive conclusions. Likewise, the belief that the “Pathétique” exists as a sort of artistic final statement is also impossible to confirm; his brother, Modest, noted that “I had not seen him so bright for a long time past” after sending the score to his publisher. Even the “Pathétique” subtitle is deceiving; in Russian, the meaning is “passionate” or “emotional,” rather than “arousing pity.”

The sense of mystery isn’t helped at all by the music. The very opening is a tragic introduction that utilizes Henry Purcell’s famous “lament bass,” as heard in Purcell’s “When I am laid in Earth.” Another melody is possibly taken Bizet’s Carmen, specifically the line “to throw one glance at me, you took possession of my whole being,” from Don Jose’s aria, “Flower Song.” Finally, even the novel order of the movements hints at an ulterior meaning. If this were a more traditionally structured symphony, the work would end with the powerful and energetic coda experienced in the third movement. Tchaikovsky chooses to end with the slow finale, heartbeats ebbing away in the lowest strings into silence. The composer often hinted that he had a story in mind for this symphony, but he insisted it “will remain a mystery to everyone - let them guess.” He most likely had no idea how accurate this statement would become.

We will never know Tchaikovsky’s true inspiration for the Sixth; if the heartbeats heard in the finale movement were a beloved character, or his own. The work remains one of the absolute finest in the repertoire regardless, a cathartic, collective experience of the extremes in human emotion. As Thomas May put it, “Tchaikovsky declared that he had put his ‘whole soul into this work.’ And there it remains – beyond all attempts at reductive explanations, for us to encounter anew.”

© Mathew Fuerst, 2024