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Tchaikovsky biography
TCHAIKOVSKY BIOGRAPHY
Tchaikovsky's music has become synonymous with the ballet and the idealised, fairy tale world he created with works such as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker Suite. His music invokes memorable melodies, vivid colours and the landscapes of his Russian homeland although his popularity meant that the critics often overlooked the quality and emotional intensity of his work.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born into a middle class family in Votkinsk in Russia in 1840. He began music lessons aged five and studied law before going on to study music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1861 to 1865. In 1866 he was appointed professor of theory and harmony at the Moscow Conservatory.
At the conservatory Tchaikovsky became acquainted with a group of Russian composers led by Rimsky-Korsakov, whose nationalist passions inspired Tchaikovsky's second symphony, Little Russian. From 1869 to 1876 the composer wrote three more operas as well as a piano concerto. Tchaikovsky's musical idol was Mozart, who he regarded as "a musical Christ" although he felt Wagner and Brahms were over-rated. Tchaikovsky's first ballet, Swan Lake, was composed during 1875 and 1876, and first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877.
In the same year Tchaikovsky married his first wife, Antonina Milyuko. Milyuko was one of his pupils but the marriage was hasty and he quickly found he couldn't bear her. The composer attempted suicide just six weeks after the wedding then he fled to St. Petersburg a nervous wreck. The couple never saw eachother again, although they never divorced and Tchaikovsky died a married man. The episode only served to confirm the rumours surrounding the composer%u2019s homosexuality, which he was apparently trying to conceal through the marriage.
About this time Tchaikovsky began a relationship with a wealthy widow, Nadejda Von Meck, who became his patron for the next 14 years. The 46-year-old mother of seven offered to subsidise Tchaikovsky without ever meeting him, which suited the morbidly shy composer perfectly. The unusual relationship, along with increasing musical commissions meant Tchaikovsky could resign from teaching to live a comfortable life as a composer. But the composer%u2019s newfound situation didn't resolve his emotional problems. He suffered from constant headaches, crying fits and drank too much. %u201CWhen you have neuroses like mine, alcohol is unavoidable,%u201D he once told a friend.
In 1887 Tchaikovsky began work on what many critics consider his best work, the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Its first performance was at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1890. However, in the same year Tchaikovsky's patronage was abruptly cut off. The decision left him devastated. It transpired that his patron, Nadeja was suffering from her own bout of mental instability. Tchaikovsky left for New York in 1891 to share in the opening ceremonies for Carnegie Hall.
Upon his return to Russia, Tchaikovsky wrote his celebrated piece, the Nutcracker Suite which comprised the famous eight movements (Minature Overture, March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Trepak, Arab Dance, Dance Choinoise and Waltz of the Flowers). The success of the work, premiered in 1892, made Tchaikovsky famous throughout Europe and America. Immediately he began work on his sixth symphony, ultimately called the 'Pathetique' into which he poured his soul. Within a week after the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1893, he was dead, supposedly from cholera contracted from drinking unboiled water. There are also theories that a group of his former classmates encouraged the composer to commit suicide to avoid the scandal of an alleged affair with a member of the Russian aristocracy.
Tchaikovsky remains one of the most performed of the late 19th century composers. Alhtough it was only later in his life, with his two last ballets that his contemporaries came to really appreciate his qualities as a composer. In addition to his ballets, symphonies and orchestral favourites, his most celebrated pieces include Romeo and Juliet (Overture) and the 1812 Overture. Eugene Onegin and the Queen Of Spades are still regularly performed at opera houses and the ballets, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite are universally part of the culture.
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