Pēteris Vasks: Musica appassionata for String Orchestra, Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 »Pathétique«

To this day, Pyotr Tchaikovsky's cause of death remains unexplained. The most persistent theory is that he contracted cholera on purpose to avoid being convicted of homosexuality, which would have resulted in the destruction of all his works. It cannot be denied that his Sixth Symphony sounds like a farewell letter, even like a requiem prae mortem. Torn between sorrow and hope in the first movement; deceptive, almost obscenely happy in the middle movements and mournfully sad in the finale, in which one can literally hear Tchaikovsky's heart stop beating at the end. The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Andris Poga combines the Pathétique with Pēteris Vasks' Musica appassionata, a work for string orchestra from 2002.