Minor correction: It's Ormandy, not Normandy. A great conductor, under-rated by too many music lovers, who had a real affinity for Russian music. I love his recordings of the Tchaikovsky 5th and the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, and I'll bet that his Tchaikovsky 6th is outstanding.
I listened to an eclectic mix of music last night -- a 78 rpm recording of Gene Autry singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," several movements of The Seasons by Tchaikovsky from a Melodiya/Columbia LP set, and Hayley Westenra's Celtic Treasure CD. (Yeah, I know, the last one wasn't a record, but I reconfigured my digital front end and needed to test it out.)
It is a stunning work and written during a difficult period in his life 1897. The name "Pathetic" was suggested by his brother as Tchaikovsky could not name the symphony in his struggle to finish the work.