Exulting to the heavens, troubled to the grave: few symphonies feature such exorbitant eruptions of emotion and abrupt mood swings as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sixth, the «Pathétique». Planned as the cornerstone of his oeuvre, it’s a kind of requiem, a hard-fought acceptance and ultimately resigned celebration of his leave-taking from life. Nine days after the world premiere, the composer was dead at the age of just 53. But first, under the baton of the award-winning young English composer Finnegan Downie Dear, two great masters of opera bring solace to the concert hall: Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Benjamin Britten, the latter with a Violin Concerto in which Linus Roth shines as soloist.