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... es influenced by Russian folk-melodies, and evoked the bleak Russian countryside in the grips of winter. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 was performed in 1868 with Anton Rubenstein conducting. In the same year, Tchaikovsky met My Balakirev, who had succeeded Anton Rubenstein as head of the Conservatory at St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, Balakirev was driven out from his post because his opponents had despised his controversial ideas.
He settled in Moscow, where he met Tchaikovsky. He suggested to Pyotr that he should compose an overture-fantasy on the theme of Romeo and Juliet. Not only did Balakirev fuel the idea, but he also sketched the outline of the work and supervised its composition in great detail. In gratitude, Tchaikovsky dedicated Romeo and Juliet to Balakirev. This was Tchaikovsky's first great success, and remains one of his most enduring and popular works.
The young Tchaikovsky's progress, however, continued to be uneven. His first attempt at an opera, The Voyeur, proved to be a disaster because he had lost the original manuscript written by Ostrovsky. His symphonic poem, Forum, was bitterly criticized by Balakirev. Tchaikovsky's second opera, Undine, was also rejected. He was so distressed that he destroyed the scores of both operas. What began as a failure turned out to be one of Tchaikovsky's best known works: Piano Concerto No. 1.
On Christmas Eve of 1874, Pyotr played it for his friend Nikolai Rubenstein, intending that he should give the piece its first public performance. Tchaikovsky was at best a competent pianist, but the response he received from Nikolai was stinging and severe. He had said the concerto was worthless, impossibly to play clumsy and awkward beyond possibility of correction. Tchaikovsky was bitter about Nikolai's criticism and Russian rejection of the concerto.
He decided to pass on the concerto to friend and distinguished German pianist Hans von Blow, who was invited by America to give the concerto its first public performance at Boston, Massachusetts in October 1875. The American audience was absolutely stunned and demanded an encore of the entire finale of the concerto. Nikolai Rubenstein later changed his attitude completely and conducted the first Moscow premiere given by Taneyev, Tchaikovsky's favorite pupil. Pyotr Tchaikovsky was a very forgiving man, unable to bear a grudge for long. When Nikolai Rubenstein died in 1881, Tchaikovsky wrote a beautiful trio for piano, cello, and violin as a tribute to all the support and services that Nikolai had offered him through the years.
The success of Piano Concerto No. 1 had brought Tchaikovsky international fame. He was now recognized as a leading composer, but he was still unhappy. His prizewinning opera Vakula the Smith (1876) was not well-received, and his now renowned ballet Swan Lake in 1877 was nothing less than a theatrical disaster. In 1877, Tchaikovsky began to work on another opera, Eugene Onegin, based on a story by the great Russian poet Pushkin. This opera offered opportunities for all of Tchaikovsky's favorite themes: from exuberant dances to vivid scenes of Russian country life. The story tells how a young woman, Tatyana, sends a letter to an older man, confessing her love for him, but is cruelly rejected.
Quite by coincidence, Tchaikovsky received a letter much like how the story tells. The writer was Antonina Milyukova, who was desperately in love with Tchaikovsky since she had been a student at the Conservatory. At first, he tried to push her away, but then she threatened suicide. Finally, Pyotr's father urged him to marry Antonina. The marriage took place in July 1877. The marriage made Pyotr extremely unhappy.
He attempted to give himself pneumonia by standing in the chest-deep waters of the Moscow river, trying to avoid the disgrace of suicide. He failed to catch even a cold, and fled to St. Petersburg. He put responsibility on his younger brother Anton, to explain to Antonina that the marriage was over. She was packed off to Odessa at the family's expense. There was another woman in Tchaikovsky's life: Nadezha von Me, who was to be the mainstay of Tchaikovsky's life, both emotionally and financially.
Throughout the rest of Tchaikovsky's life, they exchanged over one thousand letters. It was to her that Tchaikovsky admitted his homosexuality in light of his failure of a marriage. Von Means family made a fortune out of railroads, and she was soon Tchaikovsky's patron. She had been a great admirer of his music and was a pianist herself.
She began by overpaying Pyotr for arrangements of piano works. After 1878, she had settled upon paying Tchaikovsky an annual income of 6, 000 roubles, which was a large sum at the time. This enabled him to give up teaching and concentrate entirely upon composing. He returned her generosity by dedicating his fourth symphony to her. Another masterpiece emerged during this tumultuous period of Tchaikovsky's life: the Violin Concerto, written during his long stay in Switzerland. He dedicated this concerto to the great Russian violinist Leopold Auer.
However, this concerto suffered the same fate as Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto; Auer claimed it was far too difficult and refused to play it. In 1881, another violinist, Adolf Brodsky, gave the first performance in Vienna. A famous critic declared that the music gave off a bad smell. The Violin Concerto, like Piano Concerto No. 1, possessed a powerfully lyrical opening theme, a nostalgic cadenza, and an exhilarating Finale in the style of a wild Russian Cossack dance. It is now established as among one of the best-loved violin concertos of all time by players and performers alike. When Tchaikovsky returned to Russia in 1880, he moved out to the country to be alone.
There, he completed the Serenade for Strings, and the piece most often associated with his name the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons, a commemoration of the historic Russian defeat of Napoleons army. The new Czar of Russia, Alexander III, commissioned three pieces from Tchaikovsky for his coronation, from the opera Mazeppa. From Czar Alexander III, Tchaikovsky received an official decoration the Order of St. Vladimir. This was a great and distinguished honor. By now, Tchaikovsky had felt the need to settle down.
He was elected head of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society and found a quaint cottage in the Moscow countryside to reside. He was finally happy and at peace. He had maintained acquaintance with Balakirev, who inspired Pyotr to compose two more brilliant pieces: Manfred Symphony based on Lord Byron's heroic poem; and The Sorceress. In December of 1877, Tchaikovsky set out on his first European tour as a conductor, meeting several famous composers: Brahms, Grieg, Busoni, and Dvorak. His musical tour was a success, especially in Paris, where the current fashion was for anything of Russian/Slavic nature. After his tour, Tchaikovsky returned to his country cottage and composed the Fifth Symphony, which is said to embody a heroic struggle against Fate.
Despite its popularity, Tchaikovsky had ominous feelings about it: There is something repulsive about it, and excessive cheapness and insincerity, even artificiality. This was foreshadowing his fate tragedy. In December of 1888, he set to work on a new ballet score, based on the old French fairy tale of the exquisite Princess Aurora who is cursed by a wicked fairy at her christening, put to sleep on her seventeenth birthday for a hundred years, and finally woken by the kiss of a Prince. Whereas Swan Lake had been ruined by poor staging, Tchaikovsky worked closely with the great French ballet master Marius Petipa. His detailed sequence of dances gave Tchaikovsky true enthusiasm for working on this composition. The Sleeping Beauty inspired some of Tchaikovsky's finest music.
Eloquent solo dances, tender duets, and brilliant waltzes all interwoven together by a strong and unforgettable plot. The Sleeping Beauty was considered by Stravinsky as the most convincing example of Tchaikovsky's great creative power. It remains one of the greatest of all classical ballets. Tchaikovsky's final ballet was The Nutcracker.
The story is about a magic nutcracker which turns into a Prince, defeats the evil Mouse-King, and whisks Clara off into an enchanted kingdom of toys and sweets. Tchaikovsky utilized the new distinctive silvery sound of instruments such as the celeste, used to depict the Sugar Plum fairy. By now, Tchaikovsky felt that his creative powers were lessening, as indicated by the lukewarm reception of The Nutcracker at its first performance in Christmas 1892. His last symphony was titled Pathetque.
Its melodies covered a vast range of emotion from violent passion to a tender, yearning love theme. The last movement, Adagio Lamentoso, slides painfully downward until it disintegrates into an anguished silence. Pathetque undoubtedly reflected Tchaikovsky's acceptance of his impending death. It is believed that Tchaikovsky was having a scandalous relationship with the nephew of duke. Fearing that a scandal would shake society, the authorities gave Tchaikovsky the option of poisoning himself in return for a cover story that he had died from sudden illness, thus sparing his family from shame of either scandal or suicide.
One week after Pathetque's first performance at St. Petersburg, Tchaikovsky committed suicide on November 6, 1893. Tchaikovsky had left behind a legacy unlike that of any Russian composer, or any composer. His ballet music, violin and piano concertos, symphonies, and even his delicate Serenade for Strings had made their mark as the epitome of Russian Romantic music. His life, though tragic, added an emotional dimension to his compositions not seen in any other genre. Tchaikovsky's personal suffering had come through only as beauty in all his music.
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