In the hands of a less gifted composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sixth symphony might be dismissed as self-piteous, self-indulgent, lacking in emotional self-discipline, excessive in self-conceit and shameless in its lachrymose appeal to the heartstrings. All of the above could apply depending on the nature of the listener, but the work is too magnificently structured, too awash in unabashed melodic splendor to be dismissed as it once was as a suicide piece. The suicide rumor was easy to attribute since the composer conducted the premiere only nine days before his death in 1893. The Pathétique may not have the emotional catharsis of his Fourth and Fifth symphonies but the emotional density of the Sixth and its sophisticated structural grandeur unite it with its predecessors.
A perceptive analysis of the thematic motifs of the work indicates Tchaikovsky’s descent into an exhaustive emotional demise, a struggle towards the inevitability of mortality dodged by the Fourth and Fifth symphonies. Yet while Pathétique is about death, it’s neither moribund nor self-destructive. The transformation of despair into a monumental tribute to the beauty of the human spirit even in decline, generated by despair over the inevitable, is what gives the work its power. It’s as if Tchaikovsky salutes the inevitable with his own heroic flourish. One critic described the work as a struggle between a stubborn life energy and the stronger force of oblivion.
Yet Pathétique served as a way out of a symphonic impasse that plagued the composer for some time with despair. Although Tchaikovsky was subject to what many of his friends observed as “homosexual depression,” it’s also true that the power of the symphony lies as much in its head-on confrontation with the inevitability of death. It also survives in popularity due to its magnificent architectural sense and thrilling dramatic poise, defying the listener with a distaff sense of exaltation. The suicide explanation derives from Tchaikovsky contracting cholera from tainted water, although the theory remains that the composer poisoned himself to avoid a scandal involving a member of the nobility.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Ultimately Pathétique’s irresistible dramatic thrust places it among the great 19th-century symphonies. The first movement ranges from an ominous forbidding burst of power followed by a lovely melody utilized in countless soap operas (and well used in Bette Davis’ Now, Voyager) but with a sentiment defiantly daring to be ignored. The second movement languishes in lackadaisical sentimentality followed by the third movement’s startling leap into a relentless burst of positive optimism. So well-conceived is the work that the somber finale awash in unrelenting despair comes as no surprise and remains the finale resolution to an emotionally satisfying feast of melodic beauty.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under conductor Hans Graf will perform Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Jan. 30-31 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts’ Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-291-7605 or visit mso.org.
