Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique'
New York Philharmonic Orchestra | Leonard Bernstein
Romantic | 1820-1910
Review No. 14
Knowing just nine days passed between the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s most personal symphony and the death of its creator makes it difficult to ignore the sadness that begins and ends this work. Yet the composer himself wrote, 'You cannot imagine what joy I feel in the conviction that my day is not yet over' - proof that he found the writing of this symphony creatively uplifting.
Leonard Bernstein’s interpretation captures much of that joy. But it emphasises more the pathos implied by the work’s title. It makes for a truly memorable performance - one that’s also deeply moving.
Aspects of love
Out of stillness created by low strings comes a world-weary theme on the bassoon. It’s the language of lost love - spoken also by the woodwinds and higher strings soon after the theme’s appearance. Tchaikovsky develops this melody into an epic melodrama, in a first movement very much of two parts. One is tragic and heroic, as suggested by the developed opening theme. The other is a much more famous and lushly romantic tune (T1-5:33) that leaves you in no doubt that it, too, is a consequence of love.
Preventing the movement from becoming too comfortable, a violent orchestral eruption (T1-11:34) returns us to the earlier turbulent struggle. Bernstein cranks up the drama, draws a rich sonority from the strings and aggression from the brass (T1-14:48). It all leads to a devastating emotional climax (T1-15:25). Once the thundering timpani have rolled past, romance floods back in with increasing intensity - before slowly, gently, ebbing away.
Waltzing, then marching
The limping waltz of the second movement feels oddly light in character given the music it follows. And like the third movement’s upbeat, triumphant, militaristic march, it has dark undertones. What it doesn’t have is the third movement’s mix of exhilaration and cruel irony which fool us into thinking this is the symphony’s conclusion, while concealing from us the great sorrow still to come.
A tragic end?
Anyone who’s ever lost love will feel they know what the strings are lamenting as the finale starts. So much sadness in just four minutes; the bassoon returning like a fallen hero, battered and bereft of spirit. This is music that makes you look back, remember what was and fight tears - despite knowing this is a carefully crafted drama designed to tug at your heart strings.
Bernstein squeezes every last drop of sentimentality from Tchaikovsky’s score. Yet his response to this music and the sweep of his conception seem genuine - even when his reading borders on Hollywood slush. The way he shapes the passage from the moment the gong is struck gently (T4-12:12) until the strings die, pathetically, into stillness is reason enough to forgive any liberties he takes. Experience this, and you’ll never again hear the Sixth Symphony’s end without thinking of the death it so prophetically foreshadowed.
