Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Pathetique / Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy

All-Tchaikovsky masterworks on a new Telarc recording by Paavo Jarvi and The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is their 12th Telarc recording.

"The music on this recording is highly charged and very emotional," said Paavo Järvi. "Tchaikovsky, who experienced many ups and downs in his life, was a master at putting his own intense feelings into his compositions. Listeners can hear this especially in his Sixth Symphony and his musical depiction of the timeless love story of Romeo and Juliet."

More than 20 years separate Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy and Pathétique Symphony. When he composed the Romeo and Juliet music, he was recovering from a love affair with the singer Désirée Artôt. When Artôt married a Spanish baritone instead, Tchaikovksy seemingly poured his grief into the Overture-Fantasy. Although the music does not adhere strictly to Shakespeare's tragedy, the story of the star-crossed lovers unfolds with references to the feuding Capulets and Montagues, the soaring love theme and Friar Lawrence's solemn chorales, which open and close this poignant Overture-Fantasy.

Although Tchaikovsky wrote to a friend that he was healthy and in good spirits while at work on his last symphony, he fell ill shortly after its premiere and died-most likely from cholera. The symphony was performed again at a memorial concert for the composer and seemed to cast an eerie premonition of his death. From that point forward listeners have heard in it Tchaikovsky's emotional suffering and depths of despair. The four-movement work is an emotional journey from darkness to light and back again, from hopeful, sun-dappled moments to somber stillness.

Telarc's 11 discs with Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have garnered critical acclaim, including their January 2007 release of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, which was praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "one of the best available outings with this great symphony." In May 2006 the CSO's Bartók and Lutoslawski Concertos for Orchestra debuted on the Billboard classical chart at number 9, and The New York Times said of it, "Mr. Järvi's interpretations are everywhere persuasive, and the performances almost uniformly virtuosic. Telarc's typically expansive sound is especially gratifying…" The September 2005 release, Dvorák: Symphony No. 9/Martinu: Symphony No. 2, was named an "Editor's Choice" by Gramophone Magazine. Music of Ravel also was named a Gramophone "Editor's Choice" and was awarded a Diapason d'or.