# Tchaikovsky’s Suicide Note?



## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

I wanted to share with you Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 6, called "Pathetique" (which translates from Russian as "passionate"). It was Tchaikovsky's last symphony. He conducted its premier just nine days before his death in 1893. He was 53 years old.

To understand this symphony, we have to understand the dark period in Tchaikovsky's life.

Tchaikovsky was a master of emotions, because he was a neurotic, highly sensitive person, full of phobias (we know this from his letters). For instance, he had a phobia that his head would fall off when he was conducting. (He eventually overcame this phobia, as at times he had to earn a living as a conductor.) His music is ridden with emotions; it is manifestation of his emotions. It is his emotional confession.

Tchaikovsky wrote "Pathetique" when he was depressed and doubting his ability to compose. (He had destroyed his previous symphony because he was unsatisfied with it.)

Tchaikovsky died from catching cholera by drinking unboiled water, or at least this is the official story. However, there is another very plausible theory, which is that Tchaikovsky committed suicide. His gay relationship with a young nobleman was about to be exposed, which would have brought public shame and destroyed his social status. (Remember this was the homophobic Russia of 120 years ago, which actually is not much different from today's Russia in this respect).

There is an argument that "Pathetique" is Tchaikovsky's suicide note. Historians and musical critics are divided on this point. They don't know, and we will probably never know the truth, but I would like to zoom in on fourth movement of this symphony and let the music help you decide.

The first three movements are gloriously optimistic- there is a waltz; beautiful, lingering melodies; and ballet dances. You don't need much imagination to see a sunrise, vast Russian landscapes, troikas, and bright white snowfields (Doctor Zhivago-type).

The fourth movement is different. It starts with a cry for help (voiced with the violins). It builds on melancholic, depressive overtones. Tchaikovsky masterfully borrows melodic elements from the first three movements, but these melodies are barely recognizable are as they are painted over with deep sadness. And unlike Tchaikovsky's other pieces that arrive at a natural finale (you can feel they are about to end), this symphony (like death) ends in nothingness, absolute nothingness - the music just fades out.

Here are performances of the full symphony. I suggest you listen to them first:

Herbert Von Karajan
Leonard Bernstein
Yuri Temirkanov
Valery Gergiev
Mstislav Rastrapovich (1993 100 year anniversary of Tchaikovsky's death)

And then listen to the fourth movement. We are lucky to have many performances of it.

Herbert Von Karajan
Leonard Bernstein
Yuri Temirkanov
Valery Gergiev

Take a look at my other articles on MyFavoriteClassical.com


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Vitaliyka said:


> Tchaikovsky's Suicide Note?


let's not make up things.


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## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

Suicide is not too far fetched theory http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/did-tchaikovsky-really-commit-suicide.html?pagewanted=all


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Vitaliyka said:


> (Remember this was the homophobic Russia of 120 years ago,


every country was that way back then - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#Conviction_for_indecency



Vitaliyka said:


> which actually is not much different from today's Russia in this respect).


how do you know without ever been to the place?



Vitaliyka said:


> You don't need much imagination to see a sunrise, vast Russian landscapes, troikas, and bright white snowfields (Doctor Zhivago-type).


not much imagination indeed, only a lack of knowledge that there are other seasons here like the spring, summer and autumn.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

....................................


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Vitaliyka said:


> Suicide is not too far fetched theory http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/did-tchaikovsky-really-commit-suicide.html?pagewanted=all


anyone can write an article to publish in some tabloid but that does not make its theories more plausible.


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## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

This happened 100 years ago, it is a theory based on research. But my point is that 4th movement sounds like Tchaikovsky was saying goodbye.


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## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

I have been to Russia. 

I agree that other countries (even the US until 20 years ago) were very homophobic.


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## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

I have been to Russia. 

I agree that other countries (even the US until 20 years ago) were very homophobic.


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## worov (Oct 12, 2012)

> Here are performances of the full symphony. I suggest you listen to them first:
> 
> Herbert Von Karajan
> Leonard Bernstein
> ...


These are great recordings. I also suggest Mravinsky's DGG recording :


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Vitaliyka said:


> This happened 100 years ago, it is a theory based on research.


whenever the word 'research' mentioned, i become least trusting & suspect a libel or defamation about to be brought up.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

The suicide story has been thoroughly discredited. It is a silly second hand rumor that never had any factual basis. Tchaikovsky was as happy as he had ever been around the time of the Pathetique's premiere. For once he was thoroughly confident that he had composed a great work and it was well-received from the beginning. In general, a dark work cannot be taken as evidence of a composer's dark thoughts.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Vitaliyka said:


> I have been to Russia.


and had no luck with it maybe, since you dislike the country this much?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Vitaliyka said:


> Tchaikovsky died from catching cholera by drinking unboiled water, or at least this is the official story. However, there is another very plausible theory, which is that Tchaikovsky committed suicide. His gay relationship with a young nobleman was about to be exposed, which would have brought public shame and destroyed his social status. (Remember this was the homophobic Russia of 120 years ago, which actually is not much different from today's Russia in this respect).


Tchaikovsky's homosexuality was an open secret and he seems to have been pretty comfortable with it at the time. The idea that he would commit suicide over it during a happy period in his life makes no sense whatever.


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## Vitaliyka (Sep 28, 2016)

a few points 1) he was not happy, in fact he was depressed 2)he homosexuality was about to be exposed - HUGE deal in Russia


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Wiki has a discussion of the various theories surrounding Tchaikovsky's death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky

The truth is that he had grown weary of the Russian musical scene and secretly moved to Detroit, where he worked for the railroad until his retirement. He passed away in 1915, surrounded by friends who didn't know his true identity.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Maybe he went for a dink and was stabbed to death by a young lad.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> Maybe he went for a dink and was stabbed to death by a young lad.


Or by a jalourse longtime lover.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I think it is quite plausible that the great Tchaikovsky contemplated suicide because of his and society's homophobic stance. This was manifested in the great symphony discussed here. What a genuine Romantic story.


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## Guest (Sep 29, 2016)

Interesting to check what the press coverage has been in recent years as it tracks the ongoing development of claims and counter-claims.

NYTimes in 1981 on the recently-emerged Orlova theory

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/did-tchaikovsky-really-commit-suicide.html?pagewanted=all

The Telegraph in 2007 offers a counter to Orlova (and other theories)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3662573/How-did-Tchaikovsky-die.html

It seems to me that without conclusive evidence to the contrary, the standard death-by-cholera explanation should stand. Much seems to be made of the idea that he wouldn't take risks and drink unboiled water, yet if reports of his active homosexuality are anything to go by, he was a risk taker!


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## atlanteanmuse (May 29, 2013)

Christopher Small, in his book "Musicking", gave a remarkable hermeneutic account of Tchaikovsky 6 - it can be read on Google Books and begins on p. 177; it involves the dynamics of masculine/feminine and order/chaos, which he had previously discussed in relation to the works of Beethoven, Haydn etc. 
Here is the link:

https://books.google.at/books?id=1l...PAhVI1hQKHU87CvgQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

What childish nonsense you have posted. There is no evidence (although there is plenty of unsubstantiated conjecture) that Tchaikovsky committed suicide. His career and recognition as a composer were going VERY well for him in the 1890s and times had never been better. I fail to see how the tempestuous first movement of the _Pathétique_ could be described as "gloriously optimistic" unless I've been hearing it wrongly for the last 45 years.
I come to this forum (perhaps naively) for enlightening insights and conversations about classical music, not inane infantile restatements of myths. It might make a good story, but has nothing to back it up in historical evidence.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this yet again, but since this nonsense crawls out of its rightful grave to plague the land of the living and gullible every six months, I will. And I'll blog it this time so that I won't have to look it up again.

The earliest identified written source of the Tchaikovsky suicide rumor is in the as yet unpublished memoirs of one R.A. Mooser, a Swiss writer on music who arrived in St. Petersburg in 1896, well after the composer's death. He was never accepted in the musical circles of the city and Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's biographer, suggests that this outsider status motivated him to pose as someone with juicy inside knowledge. He claims to have first heard the rumor from an unidentified critic at the _St. Petersburg Zeitung_. Later he claims to have heard it again from Riccardo Drigo, the ballet conductor at the Mariinsky Theater, and Alexander Glazunov. Since neither of these people could possibly have had any first hand knowledge of the alleged suicide, Mooser's report - even if his highly unlikely claims about Drigo and Glazunov are true - is at best third hand gossip written by a nonentity. Please let this ridiculous story DIE!


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

I remember Andre Previn explaining that Tchaikovsky wrote a program for this symphony, but he tore it up in tears because it was too personal, and too emotional.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Maybe he was poisoned by Antonio Salieri.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Maybe he was poisoned by Antonio Salieri.


You could be right in a way, the KGB has strange disguise tac-ticks.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The fact is that Tchaikovsky drinking arsenic is a sheer conjecture without solid historical evidence. I mean, what hard evidence is there for the 'class of honour' talked about. The whole symphony appears one of despair to me from the first movement onwards. It's certainly a farewell to life but only in the way Mozart's late works can appear to be. Of course, the suicide makes a better story but that doesn't mean it's true.

The best performances to me are:

Karajan EMI with the BPO which is wilder than his DG recording
Mravinsky
Pletnev - his first recording for Virgin.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I read a biography of Tchaikovsky some years ago, in which the suicide theory is given serious attention. I can't remember the author anymore. But he goes into the whole thing; according to the information he dug up, Tchaikovsky was tried in a "court of honour" by friends and acquaintances, who told him that his relationship with some young nobleman was about to be revealed, and that his only way to keep his honour was to commit suicide (and make it look like natural causes.)

As I recall, the author took the theory fairly seriously. Personally I didn't think the evidence he presented was really all that compelling. 

However, whether true or not, all of this happened (if it happened) after Tchaikovsky had finished the Pathetique, and thus the symphony cannot be seen as a kind of suicide note. Fact is, he was very much given to writing tragic music, and did so regularly throughout his career.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Wiki has a discussion of the various theories surrounding Tchaikovsky's death.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky
> 
> The truth is that he had grown weary of the Russian musical scene and secretly moved to Detroit, where he worked for the railroad until his retirement. He passed away in 1915, surrounded by friends who didn't know his true identity.


Correct. It also came to light that while in America, he entered into a relationship with a young pianist who very much wanted to compose but couldn't come up with a note. It was only after he started his affair with Tchaikovsky that works by him (or so it was supposed) suddenly started to appear. After Tchaikovsky's death in 1915, his inspiration quickly dried up and he died not long after.

His name? Scott Joplin.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

brianvds said:


> I read a biography of Tchaikovsky some years ago, in which the suicide theory is given serious attention. I can't remember the author anymore. But he goes into the whole thing; according to the information he dug up, Tchaikovsky was tried in a "court of honour" by friends and acquaintances, who told him that his relationship with some young nobleman was about to be revealed, and that his only way to keep his honour was to commit suicide (and make it look like natural causes.)
> 
> *As I recall, the author took the theory fairly seriously. Personally I didn't think the evidence he presented was really all that compelling. *
> 
> However, whether true or not, all of this happened (if it happened) after Tchaikovsky had finished the Pathetique, and thus the symphony cannot be seen as a kind of suicide note. Fact is, he was very much given to writing tragic music, and did so regularly throughout his career.


There is no evidence. There is gossip propagated by people with no connection to historical events. Poznansky addresses all of these issues in detail in "Death in St. Petersburg," Chapter 30 of his biography.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

The Pathetique isn't that good anyway.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I have no opinion about the suicide theory, bu I do think the evidence points to his being gay -- and most of the denial emanates from the official Russian line that there are no homosexuals in Russia -- which is why Putin makes a big deal about appearing without a shirt on.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

MarkW said:


> I have no opinion about the suicide theory, bu I do think the evidence points to his being gay -- and most of the denial emanates from the official Russian line that there are no homosexuals in Russia -- which is why Putin makes a big deal about appearing without a shirt on.


It is absolutely sure he was gay. In the gay composers thread, if you can find it, I posted numerous references from Tchaikovsky's own diary of his affairs with military officers, drozhsky drivers, bathroom attendants, and anonymous black men in the park.


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## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Zhdanov said:


> anyone can write an article to publish in some tabloid but that does not make its theories more plausible.


Tabloid? Huh? The new york times? Lets be serious....


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> The Pathetique isn't that good anyway.


It's all relative. I would consider the _Patheique_ as a fine symphony but not in my top ten favorite symphonies ranking.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> There is no evidence. There is gossip propagated by people with no connection to historical events. Poznansky addresses all of these issues in detail in "Death in St. Petersburg," Chapter 30 of his biography.


Yes, as I recall that was my problem with it too: the evidence wasn't really evidence. it consisted almost in its entirety of gossip, mostly recalled decades after the fact.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> It is absolutely sure he was gay. In the gay composers thread, if you can find it, I posted numerous references from Tchaikovsky's own diary of his affairs with military officers, drozhsky drivers, bathroom attendants, and anonymous black men in the park.


Yup, he was quite thoroughly promiscuous, and even worse by modern standards, seemed to have had a penchant for adolescent boys too. Much of this remained covered up by earlier biographers. It wasn't just Tchaikovsky either; I recall reading a brief biography of Britten, written relatively recently (1970/1980s, as I recall) in which Peter Pears is referred to as "his very good friend" and nothing more is said about it... 

I didn't know there was a gay composers thread. 

I actually get irritated when such things about great composers are covered up. Why? To "protect their reputation"? Would their music be any less great if it turned out they were gay or neurotic or murderers or supporters of the Australian cricket team? I prefer to judge that for myself, rather than have a biographer decide on my behalf what I am allowed to know.

Of course, on the other hand one could argue that personal stuff is just that, and shouldn't be shouted out to the whole world.


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