Pathétique

French Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović is often celebrated as a “classical rock star” for his scintillating stage presence. As an artist, he tries to erase the boundaries between the classical repertoire and the virtuosity of Eastern European popular music. In Tchaikovsky’s music, this identity finds particularly fertile ground, for the Violin Concerto in D major offers an almost infinite kaleidoscope of timbral colors. Today, it is hard to imagine that this bright, momentum-filled concerto was born of a serious personal crisis. In 1877, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, not out of love but to put an end to rumors of his homosexuality. The marriage ended after only eleven weeks, and the composer suffered a mental breakdown. He was saved by Nadežda von Meck, a wealthy widow, who enabled him to take refuge in Switzerland, where the concerto took shape.

It was the beginning of an unusual bond. For thirteen years, they wrote more than 1,200 letters to each other without ever meeting in person. In 1890, von Meck abruptly ended the relationship without explanation, a conundrum that haunted Tchaikovsky to the end.

The tragic atmosphere of Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” can be read as an echo of that rupture and as a sonic testimony to an ultimate loneliness. A work on the edge of the abyss, completed shortly before his death.