The pathetic LIFE of Piotr I. Tchaikovsky / photo Bojan Brecelj, text Ziva Brecelj When Piotr Illich Tchaikovski approached the conducter's stall on October 28, 1893 to conduct his Sixth Symphony for the first time his face was unusually pale, his deep blue eyes reflected something hard. The audience respectfully aplauded: the reputation of composer's name after brilliant success abroad and in the country has grown considerably as well in St. Petersburg. The baton in hand he was unusually stiff, ponderous in movement and the visible embarassement which he had by then through many public appearances managed to surmount seemed to become again as uncontrollable as long ago when he had conducted for the first time his own score "Woman's shoe".