Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 Op 74 “Pathetique”-Final Hours
I have always wondered how would I spend my final hours on mother earth. In any case, it depends whether my departure comes suddenly like in an accident or a heart attack or through a pro-longed terminal illness where there is much fore notice for me to plan it. In the case of Tchaikovsky, he died of Cholera which could be classified as an illness that does not give him much time to plan his final hours. However, scholars stand divided over whether the circumstances surrounding his death could be a masked suicide. This is because at the time of his death, there was a Cholera epidemic and a man of his economic standing and intellectual knew better to take pre-cautions not to drink un-bioled water. The possible motivation for his suicide was noted to be threats to expose his homosexual affairs with some of his students. This provides a fairly strong motivation as Tchaikovsky has tried to mask by homosexuality by a proper marriage which ended disastrously and also resulted in him attempting suicide earlier then.
My reasoning tend to favour the former opinion that he did not take his own life initially as there are much more better ways to commit suicide than to drink un-boiled water but my opinion changed after listening for many times the last symphony he composed before his death nick named “Pathetique” which he himself premiered just nine days before his death. The symphony comes in four movements here is why.
The first movement starts with a dark minor theme and round the middle of this movement, the music tones down to almost a dead silence followed by a rude awakening by a sudden outburst of the timpani. To be, this could be a sign that the composer is trying to explain that he was confronted with something of great impact to his life suddenly.
The second movement is a very very unique in that it is timed in 5/4 which is almost unheard of in classical music but the brillance of Tchaikovsky makes this oddly timed movement very liquid and unless one listen observantly, you will not notice the 5/4 signature like the louder contemporary song Take Five which also share the same 5/4 time signature. This could be the Tchaikovsky trying to mirror his last 'dance' or celebration before his planned departure and being Tchaikovsky, it has to be unique.
The third movement is a march of sort that surprisingly does not contain much evidence of celebratory or triumphant theme like in most marches. To be this could be his own funeral march.
The last movement re-develops the theme started in the first movement and gives it a good finality but in a fairly dark manner like how most tragedy would end. To me it could be remorse on the part of Tchaikovsky that he has to take his own life.
I am neither a music scholar and what I wrote above is a figment of my own imagination and there are no solid ground to base it own but it is a very emotive outlook after listening to the symphony.
I have 4 recordings of Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 and what I wrote is based on these 3 recordings.
1.An awe powering interpretation by Karajan conducting Berlin Philharmoniker.
2.A later recording by Charles Dutoit conducting his lovely Montreal Symphonic Orchestra
3.A sonically good recording because it was done recently by Paavo Jari conducting the Cincinnati Symphonic Orchestra.
4.The ever famous old recording by Evengy Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic recorded in the 1950s. Nothing like having Russians interpret a Russian work.
My vote still goes to Mravinsky version for its very involving interpretation of the work. However, sound wise, do not expect much from a recording done in the 1950s. I would like to listen to Karajan recording of this piece with the Berlin Philharmonic as it has also been rated as a good interpretation and anyone out there that has heard it let me know.
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye
Peter Lye aka lkypeter