Showing posts with label Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Show all posts
June 12, 2025
April 1, 2024
December 1, 2023
E. T. A. Hoffmann articles/mentions
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mentions:
The Nutcracker & Joyous Tidings
Jacques Offenbach ~ Tales of Hoffmann
E. T. A. Hoffmann - 1840's
self portrait
Ann Barzel articles/mentions
November 12, 2023
October 3, 2021
May 7, 2020
December 18, 2018
Eugene Ormandy articles/mentions
Home for Xmas - Vol 1
Home for Xmas - Vol 2
Jobriath
Carl Orff ~
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana á la Manzarek
Catulli Carmina
Tchaikovsky ~ Symphony #6 (Pathétique)
Eugene Ormandy
photographer unknown
March 11, 2018
Queen Elizabeth II articles/mentions
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mentions:
Bill Haley ~ Rock Around the Clock
Frankie Laine ~ Command Performance
Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture
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January 7, 2018
December 25, 2017
Christmas stuff(ings)
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photo by Styrous®
Band Aid ~ Do They Know It's Christmas?
Arthur Fiedler ~ Pops Goes Christmas
Leontyne Price ~ A Christmas Offering
Spın̈al Tap ~ Christmas With The Devil
Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians ~ A Visit From St. Nicholas
The Yobs - Auld Lang Syne
December 10, 2017
November 24, 2017
May 9, 2016
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1840 ~ 1893
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Portrait by Nikolai Kuznetsov
This is an addendum to the article, Tchaikovsky ~ 1812 Overture (link below), which celebrated the birth of the composer.
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With the death of his mother from cholera in 1854, when he was fourteen, the loss prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory.
The works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Even though he was musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. He entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five. His training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or from forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Moscow Conservatory
While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism, and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as "lacking in elevated thought," according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.
Many of Tchaikovsky's works have Ukrainian subjects or incorporate Ukrainian folk songs or melodies. Among these are the operas Mazepa (based on Aleksandr Pushkin's poem), Little Shoes, and Night before Christmas (or Vakula the Smith, based on Nikolai Gogol's story); symphonies No. 2 (Little Russian), No. 4, and No. 7 (finished and edited by Semyon Bogatyrev); the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B-flat Minor; the 1812 Overture, the opening of which is based on the first mode of the Kievan chant; the transcription for piano solo of Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky's orchestral fantasy Kozachok; and songs to Russian translations of Taras Shevchenko, such as ‘Sadok Vyshnevyi’ (Cherry Orchard).
Discussion
of Tchaikovsky's personal life, especially his sexuality, has been the
most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and
certainly of any Russian composer of his time. It has also at times
caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to same-sex attraction and portray him as a heterosexual,
He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods,
"associating openly and establishing professional connections with
them."
However, the degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable
with his sexual nature has remained open to debate. Relevant portions of his brother Modest's autobiography, where he tells
of the composer's sexual orientation, have been published, as have
letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky
openly writes of it.
Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor for most of his life. In 1868 he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt. They became infatuated with each other and were engaged to be married but due to Artôt's refusal to give up the stage or settle in Russia, the relationship ended. Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved. In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova. The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually, the couple lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left. Tchaikovsky's family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life. He was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support, she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition. Tchaikovsky's marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.
From October 28 to November 9, 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, Tchaikovsky died there. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky; later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev, a Russian pianist, conductor and composer, were also buried nearby.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky gravestone
Viewfinder links:
1812 Overture
The Nutcracker
Symphony #6: (Pathétique)
Swan Lake
Van Cliburn
PIL (Public Image Ltd.)
John Willimas ~ A Soundtrack King
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