»Pathétique«

The philosopher Walter Benjamin once described Paris as the »capital of the 19th century«. The metropolis on the Seine also exerted a strong fascination on Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky, who often visited here, and Manfred Trojahn. 

Trojahn, who was born in Lower Saxony, has been commuting between his homeland and the French capital for years. »I actually always move in between,« he says of living in two different cultures. The French influence is evident in his music in a certain clarity and in the interplay of orchestral colours. In »Je suis l'idée maîîtresse«, it is also evident in the text by French poet Paul Valéry, a master of ambiguity. Tschaikowsky's Sixth Symphony, the »Pathétique«, on the other hand, resonates above all with Russian melancholy and dark tragedy. It was his last work; the composer died a few days after its premiere.