He conducted it himself. Nine days later, he was dead.

On October 28, 1893, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky led the first performance of his Symphony No. 6 in St. Petersburg. The audience's reaction was reportedly reserved, puzzled by a symphony that ends not in triumph but in a slow, fading lament.

Tchaikovsky died on November 6, 1893, and the work, known as the Pathétique, soon came to be heard as his musical farewell.

Today it is one of the most performed and most emotional symphonies in the classical repertoire.

What piece of music moves you every time you hear it?

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