Where is tchaikovsky born

Since both parents had graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg, they decided to educate him as they had themselves been educated. The School of Jurisprudence mainly served the lesser nobility and would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant.

Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies. In partial compensation for his isolation and loss, Tchaikovsky made lifelong friendships with fellow students, including Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard. Music became a unifier. While it was not an official priority at the School of Jurisprudence, Tchaikovsky maintained an extracurricular connection by regularly attending the opera with other students.

Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice. Even though he gave this practical advice, his father remained receptive about a career in music for Tchaikovsky. He simply did not know what Tchaikovsky could accomplish, nor whether he could make a living at it. No public education system in music existed at the time in Russia and private education, especially in composition, was erratic.

On 10 June , the year-old Tchaikovsky graduated with the rank of titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed five days later to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that.

He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent.

The classes held at the Mikhailovsky Palace were a precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class but held on to his Ministry post until the following year, wanting to make sure his course lay in music. From to he studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba.

Rubinstein, director and founder of the Conservatory, taught instrumentation and composition. Tchaikovsky benefited from his Conservatory studies in two ways.

First, it transformed him into a musical professional and gave him tools that helped him thrive as a composer. Second, his in-depth exposure to European principles and forms for organizing musical material gave Tchaikovsky the sense that his art belonged to world culture and was not exclusively Russian or Western.

It also became a starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony. Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony.

It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February After graduating from the Conservatory, Tchaikovsky briefly considered a return to public service due to pressing financial needs.

He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances , conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September Tchaikovsky later included this work, retitled, Dances of the Hay Maidens , in his opera The Voyevoda.

From to , Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose. This exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad. In his reviews, he praised Beethoven, considered Brahms overrated and despite his admiration took Schumann to task for poor orchestration.

In , while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form the RMS, critic Vladimir Stasov and an year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev, met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music.

Taking the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model, they espoused a music that would incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western methods of musical expression and use exotic harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales.

Moreover, they saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent; imposing foreign academics and regimentation would stifle the Russian qualities Balakirev and Stassov wished to nurture. Followers trickled in. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a naval cadet, followed in and Alexander Borodin, a chemist, in Like Balakirev, they were not professionally trained in composition but possessed varying degrees of musical proficiency.

Together, the five composers became known as the moguchaya kuchka , translated into English as the Mighty Handful or The Five. His founding a professional institute where predominantly foreign professors taught alien musical practices heated the controversy to boiling point.

Balakirev attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training. Cui, who championed the nationalist cause as a music critic for the next half-century, wrote a blistering review of a cantata Tchaikovsky had composed as his graduation thesis. The review devastated the composer. Tchaikovsky, now Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory, had already promised his Characteristic Dances to that ensemble but felt ambivalent.

He wanted to fulfil his commitment, but had concerns over sending his composition to someone whose musical aims ran counter to his own and could thus be considered hostile. He eventually sent the Dances but enclosed a request for encouragement should they not be performed.

Balakirev, whose influence over the other composers in The Five had meanwhile waned, may have sensed the potential for a new disciple in Tchaikovsky. These letters set the tone for their relationship over the next two years. The group also welcomed his Second Symphony, subtitled the Little Russian. In its original form, Tchaikovsky allowed the unique characteristics of Russian folk song to dictate the symphonic form of its outer movements, rather than Western rules of composition.

This was a primary aim of The Five. However, Tchaikovsky became dissatisfied with this approach, choosing to make a large cut in the finale and rewrite the opening movement along Western lines when he revised the symphony seven years later.

Despite his collaboration with Balakirev, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The disappointments in between exacerbated a lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Eventually, Rubinstein reconsidered and took up the work. Another was a new attitude becoming prevalent among Russian audiences.

Previously, they had been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight compositions. They gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the music itself. Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda , based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, was premiered in The composer became dissatisfied with it and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript.

Undina followed in Only excerpts were performed and it, too, was destroyed. Between these projects, he started to compose an opera called Mandragora , to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects.

The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik , premiered in During its composition, he fell out with Ostrovsky. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov, disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia. The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith Op.

Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the premiere the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception. 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, to efforts at armchair analysis by Western biographers. Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor most of his life. In , at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova. The marriage was a disaster.

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 also became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition.

More debatable is how comfortable the composer felt with his sexual nature. There are currently two schools of thought. Both groups agree that Tchaikovsky remained aware of the negative consequences should knowledge of his orientation become public, especially of the ramifications for his family. Modest shared his sexual orientation and became his literary collaborator, biographer and closest confidant. Tchaikovsky was eventually surrounded by an adoring group of male relatives and friends, which may have aided him in achieving some sort of psychological balance and inner acceptance of his sexual nature.

The level of official tolerance Tchaikovsky may have experienced, which could fluctuate depending on the broad-mindedness of the ruling Tsar, is also open to question. Russian society, with its surface veneer of Victorian propriety, may have been no less tolerant than the government. In any case, Tchaikovsky chose not to neglect social convention and stayed conservative by nature. His love life remained complicated.

A combination of upbringing, timidity and deep commitment to relatives precluded his living openly with a male lover. A similar blend of personal inclination and period decorum kept him from having sexual relations with those in his social circle. He regularly sought out anonymous encounters, many of which he reported to Modest; at times, these brought feelings of remorse. He also attempted to be discreet and adjust his tastes to the conventions of Russian society.

Nevertheless, many of his colleagues, especially those closest to him, may have either known or guessed his true sexual nature. There is no reason however to suppose that these personal travails impacted negatively on the quality of his musical inspiration or capacity. Pyotr Tchaikovsky's work was first publicly performed in , with Johann Strauss the Younger conducting Tchaikovsky's Characteristic Dances at a Pavlovsk concert.

In , Tchaikovsky's First Symphony was well-received when it was publicly performed in Moscow. The following year, his first opera, The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage — with little fanfare. After scrapping The Voyevoda , Tchaikovsky repurposed some of its material to compose his next opera, Oprichnik , which achieved some acclaim when it was performed at the Maryinsky in St.

Petersburg in By this time, Tchaikovsky had also earned praise for his Second Symphony. Also in , his opera, Vakula the Smith , received harsh critical reviews, yet Tchaikovsky still managed to establish himself as a talented composer of instrumental pieces with his Piano Concerto No.

Acclaim came readily for Tchaikovsky in , with his composition Symphony No. At the end of that year, the composer embarked on a tour of Europe. In , he completed the ballet Swan Lake as well as the fantasy Francesca da Rimini. While the former has come to be one of the most frequently performed ballets of all time, Tchaikovsky again endured the ire of critics, who at its premiere panned it as too complex and too "noisy.

Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in to focus his efforts entirely on composing. As a result, he spent the remainder of his career composing more prolifically than ever. It is his only opera generally performed outside the Soviet Union.

Other works of this period are the Violin Concerto , the Fifth Symphony , and the ballet Sleeping Beauty Tchaikovsky's fame and his activity now extended to all of Europe and America. To rest from his public appearances he chose a country retreat in Klin near Moscow. From this he became known as the "Hermit of Klin," although he was never a hermit. In he finished the opera Queen of Spades, based on a story by the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin — Tchaikovsky was happy when, despite the criticism of "experts," the opera was well received.

In late Von Meck cut him off. He had reached the point where he no longer depended on her money, but he was still upset by her rejection. Even his brother Modeste expressed surprise at his anger. Tchaikovsky had an immensely successful tour in the United States in The Sixth Symphony was first heard in October , with the composer conducting. Tchaikovsky never knew of its eventual astonishing success, for he contracted cholera a disease of the small intestine and died, still complaining about Von Meck, on November 6, Cencetti, Greta.

Garden, Edward. New York: Oxford University Press, Holden, Anthony. Tchaikovsky: A Biography. New York: Random House, Toggle navigation. Early works Tchaikovsky's early works were well made but not memorable.

A disastrous marriage In Tchaikovsky married the twenty-eight-year-old Antonina Miliukova, his student at the conservatory. Arrangement with Madame von Meck Tchaikovsky became involved in another important relationship at about the same time as his marriage.

Stunned, the composer left the room without a word. Presently, Rubinstein came to Tchaikovsky and seeing how upset he was, tried to soften the blow by saying that if Tchaikovsky agreed to revise the piece, he would introduce it at one of his concerts.

The concerto was indeed published exactly as it stood, but Tchaikovsky did eventually make alterations, particularly to the piano part. Five days later, Tchaikovsky attended the premiere of the concerto in Saint Petersburg. When, later that autumn, Taneyev performed the "impossible" work at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow with Nikolay Rubinstein conducting, the concerto was proclaimed an instant success.

Tchaikovsky spent the summer of with his sister's family at Kamenka , his brother-in-law's estate in Ukraine. Here, Tchaikovsky composed his Third Symphony , this time in five movements, two of them in dance style.

The symphony has since been nicknamed the "Polish", for no more reason than the marking "Tempo di polacca" of the Finale. In August, Tchaikovsky began work on what was to become the first of his famed trilogy of ballets— Swan Lake —which was commissioned by the Imperial Theatres in Moscow.

At the very end of , the composer left Russia together with his brother Modest and the latter's deaf-mute 7-year-old pupil Nikolay Konradi.

The two brothers decided to go to Paris via Germany and Switzerland. Modest was planning to study the latest methods of teaching deaf-mutes in Lyons at a private school. After about a month there Tchaikovsky travelled to Germany, where he attended the first festival devoted entirely to Wagner 's Der Ring des Niebelungen.

During his stay he made the acquaintance of Liszt , but he failed to meet Wagner himself. At the end of he was honoured by a visit from Lev Tolstoy , whom he greatly admired. Owing to terrible choreography and a poor orchestra, the ballet was not the success the composer had hoped for, but it remained in the repertory for another four seasons.

Most probably he thought that he could act on his inclinations for as long as possible, but that, when it became absolutely necessary, he could simply abandon these habits. After travelling with his brother Modest and Nikolay Konradi in early , Tchaikovsky clearly realised that the emotional atmosphere surrounding his brother's relationship with his charge was unhealthy and deeply fraught with potential, if not imminent, danger.

He became conscious of this on a very personal level, since he also felt an erotic attraction to the boy, and had always been a role model for his younger brothers. And so the composer resolved to end the crisis in his own way by setting an example himself. It is inevitable. I must do this, and not only for myself, but also for you and for Anatoly , Aleksandra [their sister] and all whom I love. For you in particular! But you also, Modest , need to think seriously about this.

Homosexuality and pedagogy cannot abide in harmony with one another" [25]. A month later, in a letter to Modest , he stressed this point further: "A man who, after parting with his own as he can be called child falls into the embraces of any passing trash cannot be the real educator that you want and ought to become" [26]. Discussing with Modest the possibility of the three of them living together the following year, the composer touched upon another issue which no doubt had been weighing heavily on his mind: "I do not want evil tongues to wound an innocent child, about whom they would inevitably say that I am preparing him to be my own lover, moreover, a mute one , in order to elude idle talk and rumours" [27].

Contemptuous though he was of public opinion, Tchaikovsky found that he could ignore it no longer. He was never a fighter by nature, and in the end he had no choice but to yield. His sudden and impulsive decision to marry was motivated primarily by an emotion more altruistic than selfish—-a desire to ensure his relatives' peace of mind and to retain full and mutual understanding with them without the need for reticence or deception.

Until this time Tchaikovsky had treated his homosexuality as a morally indifferent phenomenon. Now it suddenly seemed imperative to suppress it and, what is more, to advise his brother to do the same.

Indeed, his customary relationship with Modest dictated that Tchaikovsky set an example of behaviour to be imitated, one that might save Modest from the danger of scandal without causing him to abandon a pupil who was so deeply loved by both brothers. That he himself would have to make certain sacrifices in this respect must no doubt have flattered the self-esteem of the composer, who may well have seen the decision as an almost heroic gesture. Nevertheless, however vigorous their intent, Tchaikovsky's preparations for marriage did not proceed without some severe setbacks.

A few weeks after his sombre letters to Modest about marriage, he went to the country estate of his friend Bek-Bulatov, where he discovered a veritable homosexual bordello, and found himself infatuated with his coachman [28]. Tchaikovsky was torn by ambivalent feelings on the subject of sexuality and marriage.

Moreover, at the end of the same letter he honestly confessed: "I shall not enter into any lawful or illicit union with a woman without having fully ensured my own peace and my own freedom" [30]. The "freedom" that Tchaikovsky intended to ensure obviously refers to the freedom to indulge in those "weaknesses" which could not be resisted, whatever vows one may make.

Some time later, at the end of , he fell deeply in love with his conservatory student Iosif Kotek. This was a "passion" which, he admitted in a letter to Modest in January , assailed him "with unimaginable force": "My only need is for him to know that I love him endlessly and for him to be a kind and indulgent despot and idol. It is impossible for me to hide my feelings for him, although I tried hard to do so at first.

I saw that he noticed everything and understood me. But then can you imagine how artful I am in hiding my feelings?

My habit of eating alive any beloved object always gives me away. Yesterday I gave myself away completely I made a total confession of love, begging him not to be angry, not to feel constrained if I bore him, etc. All of these confessions were met with a thousand various small caresses, strokes on the shoulder, cheeks , and strokes across my head.

I am incapable of expressing to you the full degree of bliss that I experienced by completely giving myself away" [31]. It happened that around this time, in the spring of , when Tchaikovsky's passion for Kotek suddenly declined owing to the latter's infidelity and his disfigured finger , and when another close homosexual friend Vladimir Shilovsky was getting married, Tchaikovsky received several love letters from a former conservatory student named Antonina Milyukova — [32].

Antonina later admitted, both in her letters to Tchaikovsky s and in her recollections , that this first meeting made an indelible impression on her, resulting in a profound affection that lasted for many years.

She lent special meaning to the fact that her love arose from her attraction to Tchaikovsky's appearance and purely human qualities, and that she was utterly ignorant of his music and growing fame in cultural circles. Their relationship, however, did not develop in the years after their first meeting, and it was only during Antonina 's studies at the conservatory that they briefly saw each other within the walls of this institution.

As Antonina later wrote, she loved Tchaikovsky "secretly" for over four years. In late , Antonina received a small inheritance due to the division of the family estate. This potential "dowry" was apparently the immediate incentive for taking active steps toward renewing her acquaintance with the composer [34]. Both Antonina and Tchaikovsky testified that they "began a correspondence", as a result of which the composer received her offer "of hand and heart" already in the early days of May [36].

An analysis of Antonina 's surviving letters suggests that in all likelihood their personal meeting was initiated by Tchaikovsky himself. The threat of suicide, made in the last letter Antonina wrote before their meeting, cannot be considered a serious factor in Tchaikovsky's eventual decision; in the context of the entire letter, this "threat" seems to be no more than a device in the tradition of sentimental models from so-called "letter books," which were popular at the time and which contained samples of fictional letters for all occasions [37].

The meeting occurred in the house where Antonina was renting a room, on the corner of Tverskaya Street and Maly Gnezdnikovsky Lane in Moscow. But Tchaikovsky chose not to mention this meeting in his letter to Modest , written on the same day.

Instead he sought to explain his cooling off with regard to Kotek , and even began to see the manifestations of Providence in various coincidences that had recently happened: "You ask about my love? It is once again subdued almost to the point of absolute calm. And do you know why? You alone can understand this. Because two or three times I saw his injured finger in all of its ugliness!

But without that I would be in love to the point of madness, which returns anew each time I'm able to forget somewhat about his crippled finger. I don't know whether this finger is for the better or worse?

Indeed, sometimes I start to think that some coincidences are not mere accidents Who knows, maybe this is the beginning of a religiousness that, if it ever takes hold of me, will do so completely; that is, with Lenten oil, cotton-wool from the Iveron icon, etc. The bridegroom's witnesses were his brother Anatoly and his friend Iosif Kotek , the bride's were her close friends Vladimir Vinogradov and Vladimir Malama.

They were joined by the priest Dmitry Razumovsky , who was also professor of history of church music at the conservatory [40]. The majority of biographical works on Tchaikovsky date the beginning of his relationship with Antonina Milyukova to early May , the time of the genesis and first drafts of his opera Yevgeny Onegin.

According to the composer's own testimony in his letters to Nadezhda von Meck , an important factor in their rapid intimacy and marriage was Tchaikovsky's fascination with the plot of Pushkin 's novel—his sympathy for the heroine and his desire to avoid "repeating" Onegin's cruelty towards a woman who loves him.

Another significant factor was Antonina 's own insistent requests for meetings, accompanied by threats to commit suicide in case of a refusal.

From the very beginning of his married life Tchaikovsky greatly suffered from his new predicament. He quickly realised that he had made a grave mistake. Moreover, he found himself unable to accept the personality and character of his wife as well as her family and circle of friends.

After 20 days of cohabitation their marriage was still not consummated [42]. It is uncertain whether Tchaikovsky had confided in his wife at the outset regarding the problem of his homosexuality or whether she may simply have disregarded such a confession. In the first instance, Tchaikovsky contrived to be summoned to Saint Petersburg on a fictitious errand, and thereupon he departed abroad for a considerable period of time in order to recuperate from a nervous breakdown which, as it transpires from archival documents, was faked [44].

Be that as it may, there hardly remains any doubt that his homosexuality, coupled with the psychological incompatibility on which he insisted in his correspondence, proved the ultimate cause of the break-up of his marriage.

This recognition forced Tchaikovsky to admit that he had failed in his plan to enhance his social and personal stability. Most importantly, however, his impulsive marriage helped him to realise that his homosexuality could not be changed and had to be accepted as it was.

There is not a single document from the rest of his life that can be construed as an expression of self-torment on account of his homosexuality. Some occasional expressions of nostalgia for family life are perfectly understandable in a bachelor, and have nothing to do with sexual orientation.

Tchaikovsky's eventual solution in his private life became, while often entertaining passionate and even sublime feelings for young males among his social peers, including his pupils, to gratify his physical needs by means of anonymous encounters with members of the lower classes. In between was his manservant Aleksey Sofronov "Alyosha" , whose status changed over the years from one of bed-mate to that of a valued friend, who eventually married with Tchaikovsky's blessing, but stayed in his household till the very end.

At the end of his life the composer succeeded in creating an emotionally satisfying environment through close family relationships, and by surrounding himself with a group of admiring young men, headed by his beloved nephew Bob Davydov. Tchaikovsky undertook several attempts at divorce between and , but without success, since for a long time Antonina continued to believe in the possibility of some sort of future "reconciliation", and refused to agree to what her husband proposed, thereby invoking his wrath, with accusations of stupidity, suspicions of "blackmail", etc.

Only in did Tchaikovsky finally abandon the idea of divorce. At this time he ceased paying his wife the pension he had promised her it had fluctuated from 50 to rubles a month on the rounds of her erratic and unpredictable behaviour.

Antonina Milyukova 's role in Tchaikovsky's life is no longer viewed in the one-dimensional terms that used to prevail. It is impossible to deny that she had a very negative effect on the composer's psychological and physical state, a fact that is confirmed by Tchaikovsky's own statements in his letters and diaries.

Tchaikovsky called his wife a "terrible wound"—he felt heavily burdened by his legal bind and sometimes even afraid of possible "disclosures" by her concerning his homosexual preferences. Yet Tchaikovsky was also deeply concerned over the entire fiasco, and felt sincere remorse for his apparently cruel treatment of Antonina. Paradoxically, it is precisely the years from to —the most difficult time in Tchaikovsky's marital drama—that stand out as one of his most productive periods in a creative sense.

Subsequently Tchaikovsky was plagued with pangs of conscience: for instance in his letters to Pyotr Jurgenson from and , where he asks his publisher to locate his abandoned spouse in order to help her materially.

Tchaikovsky appreciated his wife's musical abilities, which is evident by a series of favourable judgments found in his letters. But Tchaikovsky often perceived Antonina 's personal qualities unfairly, painting a distorted picture of her, based on his irritation at this or that trait of her character for instance, in his letters to Nadezhda von Meck , his brothers, and others.

The fact remains that, despite her ruined family life and perennial pain, not once did Antonina attempt to "avenge" her husband. On the contrary, she even embellished slightly the composer's human image in her recollections: "No one, not a single person in the world, can accuse him of any base action. Until recently, most of Tchaikovsky's biographers have recounted the details of Tchaikovsky's marriage in a superficial and tendentious manner, always with a bias in favour of the composer.

Antonina Milyukova 's own recollections, which present her side of the story, have been labelled the product of a rash and insane woman, and therefore ignored [47]. Recent archival studies have made it possible to clarify several key details relating to Antonina 's origins, and the history of the couple's acquaintance, marriage, further relationship and her life after their separation [48].

After the composer's death, Antonina received a pension of rubles a month, which Tchaikovsky left her in his will. Antonina 's further fate was tragic: soon after Tchaikovsky's death she began to display signs of an emotional disorder a mania of persecution.

By the disease had worsened and Antonina moved to Kronstadt, where she sought spiritual support and a cure from the renowned miracle-worker Father John of Kronstadt. For some unknown reason the priest refused to help her. After her relative recovery, in February , she was released from the hospital, only to return there in June of with a diagnosis of paranoia chronica.

A month later, with the help of Tchaikovsky's brother Anatoly , she was transferred to a more comfortable psychiatric hospital outside the city—the Charitable Home for the Emotionally Disturbed at Udelnaya. The pension of her late husband served as payment for her room and board. Antonina spent the last ten years of her life at this institution more as a "resident" than a patient.

The home provided her with medical supervision in her old age, with attentive care by the personnel, and full living conveniences. Her grave has not survived. At the end of a second woman entered Tchaikovsky's life.

This was Nadezhda von Meck , the widow of a wealthy railway magnate. She had heard and admired some of Tchaikovsky's music, and when she found out that he was encountering financial problems, she began to commission pieces from him. Both agreed on the one condition—that they should never meet.

Their strange relationship, expressed through over letters, was to last for almost fourteen years. They only met twice, by accident, and hurried off without greeting each other.

When Mrs von Meck learned what had happened with Tchaikovsky during his abortive marriage, she agreed on his request to arrange for him to receive a regular allowance of rubles. This way the composer resolved his permanent financial crisis, and Mrs von Meck 's money allowed him to dedicate himself to creative work.

Tchaikovsky's relationship with Nadezhda von Meck , despite their obvious eccentricities, occasional frustrations and their gradual although on the surface almost imperceptible deterioration, can be argued to have been among the most gratifying experiences of the composer's life.

Their silent understanding never to meet endowed their "epistolary friendship" with a particular "platonic" colouring, which was deeply emotional, and at times almost ecstatic. In the case of Mrs von Meck the erotic component was very significant even at the conscious level , although always neutralized through her emphatic sentimentalism.

This proved satisfactory to both parties, providing a safe outlet for their feelings by ruling out any obvious manifestation of sexual love. In her correspondence with the composer, Mrs von Meck displayed an exceptional degree of tact, sympathy and understanding in the light of Tchaikovsky's psychological idiosyncrasies, and the specific characteristics of their epoch.

There are reasons to believe that she may have been aware of Tchaikovsky's homosexuality from the very start of their friendship, even if in a somewhat vague and inexplicit fashion, in keeping with the general Victorian attitudes towards the subject.

At the end of and the beginning of , Tchaikovsky and his brother Anatoly later replaced by Modest proceeded with their European tour through Switzerland, France, Italy and Austria, hoping to put the whole disastrous business of Tchaikovsky's marriage firmly behind them.

Iosif Kotek arrived in Vienna at the end of November, and spent some time with the brothers travelling. By January Tchaikovsky had finished his Fourth Symphony , the first of his mature symphonic works, which he dedicated secretly to Nadezhda von Meck. The other major work which occupied him during the period of his ill-fated marriage was the opera Yevgeny Onegin.

At first the opera made a modest impression on the audience, and it took several years to achieve the public acclaim it deserved. One other masterpiece also emerged from this period of self-exile: the Violin Concerto , written in Switzerland. This was inspired by Iosif Kotek , but for opportunistic reasons Tchaikovsky initially offered the dedication to the virtuoso Leopold Auer. However, it seemed that Tchaikovsky's new concerto would suffer the same fate as his First Piano Concerto four years earlier, when Auer claimed it was far too difficult and refused to play it.