Description
While music for operas and other stage plays is inherently about telling stories and tracing plots, the situation is much more differentiated in the symphonic realm. In principle, the concert hall demands an "absolute" character - everyone can and should experience the music to be heard according to his or her individual feelings. And yet there is often a specific content to it, which the composer does not always put into words to accompany it. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was at the height of his artistic reputation in 1893 when he died at the age of just 53. Carelessly or with almost suicidal intent, he had drunk a glass of water contaminated with cholera bacteria. If these circumstances were strange enough in themselves, his Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique" plays an important role in interpreting the historical events. In view of the completely unusual and therefore surprising formal structure of the symphony, there has been much speculation about a connection with a longed-for or directly induced death.