~ Tchaikovsky, Petr Ilich ~
Born: 1840 in Votkinsk (Russia)
Died: 1893 in Saint Petersburg (Russia)
Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, in the western
Ural area of the country. He studied law in Saint Petersburg and took music
classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. There his teachers included
the Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein, from whom Tchaikovsky
subsequently took advanced instruction in orchestration. In 1866 the composer-pianist
Nicholas Rubinstein, Anton's brother, obtained for Tchaikovsky the post
of teacher of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. There the young composer
met the dramatist Aleksandr Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, who wrote the libretto
for Tchaikovsky's first opera, The Voyevoda (1868). From this period also
date his operas Undine (1869) and The Oprichnik (1872), the Piano Concerto
no. 1 in B-flat Minor (1875), the symphonies no. 1 (called Winter Dreams,
1868), no. 2 (1873, subsequently revised and titled Little Russian), and
no. 3 (1875), and the overture Romeo and Juliet (1870). The B-flat piano
concerto was dedicated originally to Nicholas Rubinstein, who pronounced
it unplayable. Deeply injured, Tchaikovsky made extensive alterations in
the work and reinscribed it to the German pianist Hans Guido von Bülow,
who rewarded the courtesy by performing the concerto on the occasion of
his first concert tour of the U.S. (1875-76). Rubinstein later acknowledged
the merit of the revised composition and made it a part of his own repertoire.
Well known for its dramatic first movement and skillful use of folklike
melodies, it subsequently became one of the most frequently played of all
piano concertos.
In 1876 Tchaikovsky became acquainted with Madam Nadejda von Meck,
a wealthy widow, whose enthusiasm for the composer's music led her to give
him an annual allowance of 600 pounds. Fourteen years later, however, Madame
von Meck, believing herself financially ruined, abruptly terminated the
subsidy. Although Tchaikovsky's other sources of income were by then adequate
to sustain him, he was wounded by the sudden defection of his patron without
apparent cause, and he never forgave her. The period of his connection
with Madame von Meck was one of rich productivity for Tchaikovsky. To this
time belong the operas Eugene Onegin (1878), The Maid of Orleans (1879),
Mazeppa (1883) and The Sorceress (1887), the ballets Swan Lake (1876) and
The Sleeping Beauty (1889), the Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra
(1876), the Violin Concerto in D Major (1878), the orchestral works Marche
Slave (1876), Francesca da Rimini (1876), Symphony no. 4 in F Minor (1877),
the overture The Year 1812 (1880), Capriccio Italien (1880), Serenade for
string orchestra (1880), Manfred symphony (1885), Symphony no. 5 in E Minor
(1888), the fantasy overture Hamlet (1885) and numerous songs. Meanwhile,
in 1877, Tchaikovsky, hoping to still the conflicts he felt about his homosexuality,
had married Antonina Milyukova, a music student at the Moscow Conservatory
who had written to the composer declaring her love for him. The marriage
was unhappy from the outset, and the couple soon separated.
From 1887 to 1891 Tchaikovsky made several highly successful concert
tours, conducting his own works before large, enthusiastic audiences in
the major cities of Europe and the U.S. He composed one of his finest operas,
The Queen of Spades, in 1890. Early in 1893 the composer began work on
his Symphony no. 6 in B Minor, subsequently titled Pathétique by
his brother Modeste. The first performance of the work, given at St. Petersburg
on October 28, 1893, under the composer's direction, was indifferently
received. Nine days later, November 6, Tchaikovsky died - of cholera, according
to official records. Modern scholarship, however, is inclined to credit
the story that he committed suicide on the orders of a group of former
law school classmates, who feared scandal because an aristocrat had complained
to the czar about Tchaikovsky's homosexuality.
Many Tchaikovsky compositions - among them The Nutcracker (ballet
and suite, 1891-92), the Piano Concerto no. 2 in G Major (1880), the String
Quartet no. 3 in E-flat Minor (1876), and the Trio in A Minor for Violin,
Cello, and Piano (1882) -have remained popular with concertgoers. His most
popular works are characterized by richly melodic passages in which sections
suggestive of profound melancholy frequently alternate with dancelike movements
derived from folk music. Like his contemporary, the Russian composer Nikolay
Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky was an exceptionally gifted orchestrator;
his ballet scores in particular contain many striking effects of orchestral
coloration. His symphonic works, popular for their melodic content, are
also strong (and often unappreciated) in their abstract thematic development.
In his best operas, such as Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, he used
highly suggestive melodic passages to depict a dramatic situation concisely
and with poignant effect. His ballets, notably Swan Lake and The Sleeping
Beauty, have never been surpassed for their melodic intensity and instrumental
brilliance. Composed in close collaboration with the choreographer Marius
Petipa, they represent virtually the first use of serious dramatic music
for the dance since the operatic ballet of the German composer Christoph
Willibald Gluck. Tchaikovsky also extended the range of the symphonic poem,
and his works in this genre, including Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, are
notable for their richly melodic evocation of the moods of the literary
works on which they are based.
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