Tchaikovsky said he ‘put his entire soul’ into the Sixth Symphony. He admitted that his programme was ‘more subjective than ever’ and that he ‘often [...] wept copiously’ while working on it. The overall atmosphere is created by the sombre key of B minor and an obsessive sighing motif that recurs throughout the symphony.

In Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky focused on thematic areas, setting them to music in different ways: the peaceful, chorale-like gesture associated with Friar Lawrence in the introduction, the bitter struggle between the Capulet and Montague families, and the intoxicated love of Romeo and Juliet. The work ends with the return of a chorale of reconciliation and the transfiguration of the lovers.