Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
I have written the song " My genius, my angel, my friend" and I want to play it for you. Anton Rubinstein is planning to open the St. Petersburg Conservatory. I am thinking of enrolling there. If music proves to be a cul-de-sac for me then - my position will be irrevocable.
Faithfully Yours Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky to Mily Balakirev
Dear Mily,
The review of my Cantata which was written as my graduation exercise from the Conservatory is far from flattering. The piece was called "feeble and insignificant ". The effect of this review on me was disappointedly devastating: My vision grew dark, my head spun, and I ran out of the cafe, when I read it, like a madman. All day I wandered aimlessly through the city, repeating " I am sterile, insignificant, nothing will come out of me. I am ungifted"
Your friend Tchaikovsky.
Balakirev to Tchaikovsky
Dear Pyotr,
In my reply with complete frankness I consider you as " a fully fledged artist". I think your first recognised masterpiece, the fantasy-overture "Romeo and Juliet" is a work which I wholeheartedly embrace. Despite our collaboration on the "Romeo and Juliet" fantasy-overture, you have made considerable efforts to ensure your musical independence from the conservative faction of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Sincerely yours
Mily
I was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk on the Volga river in Russia. I was 14 when my mother died. Within a month of my mother's death I was making my first composition " A Waltz" in her memory. In 1855 I started to take private piano lessons with Kundinger from Nuremberg. I graduated from the School of Jurisprudence (Law) at the age of 19. In 1861 I attended classes in music theory organised by the Russian Musical Society. Soon I abandoned my civil service and in 1865 I graduated from the Conservatory of Music in St. Petersburg. In 1867 I became professor of " Music Theory" at the Moscow Conservatory. Looking through the key-hole of a time machine I can see my monument in front of the Moscow Conservatory commemorating my contribution to music. Birds quite often sit on my head which I find very annoying. From 1867 til 1878 I wrote many works including First Piano Concerto. The first complete performance of my first Symphony was in Moscow in 1868. It was well received. In the same year I fell in love with Belgian soprano Desiree Artot. We got engaged but in 1869 she married somebody else. In 1888 my music evening concerts in Paris were called Triumph of Russian Music.
Letters, news-paper articles , correspondence
Tchaikovsky to Alexander Serov
Dear Alexander,
Tchaikovsky to Sasha Bunin
Dear Sasha,
For the summer of 1864 I was asked to stay in the country home of Prince Alexei Golitsyn. My name-day was celebrated with a carriage ride into the forest at night lit by flaming barrels of tar to a feast laid out for peasants and gentry alike... It was an opportunity to stay in beautiful surrounding and write concert overture for Ostrovsky drama "The Storm", which is one of the most trenchant pieces of Russian Theatre between Gogol and Chekhov. I suddenly realized that we are facing the time of big social changes. The storm in nature is a perfect subject for intense first notes , and then the music goes from emotional strife to elegant waltz rhythms-gradually portraying the crash of a storm..
Yours Pyotr
Article in the journal " World of Art"
On the 3 of March 1892 I had a discussion with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The discussion was about some new ideas in music. One of them was the introduction of old Russian musical instrument Balalaika into 4th Tchaikovsky symphony Though Pyotr Ilyich admired the beautiful sound of Balalaika, he expressed his opinion: " he was categorically against the introduction of Balalaika as a orchestra instrument. It is absolutely unsuitable as it will not increase the variety of musical sounds in the orchestra. Besides, balalaika is too noisy!"
Sergei Diaghilev Interview: Success of Russian Music 1907
We, who are Russians, have two motherlands: Russia and Europe.
Next spring I am going to bring Russian Opera to Paris. Tchaikovsky had a dream to play his music in Grand Opera in Paris. The rejection by French audiences towards Russian Composers was too strong then. Now French audiences are interested in Russian music, especially in Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky 's melody is so Russian as Pushkin's poetry or Glinka's Romance.
Igor Stravinsky 1908
Dear Sergei,
This year "Ballets Russes" was opened with Tchaikovsky ballet "Sleeping beauty" I felt the musical hero in Tchaikovsky's music persisted in exploring the meaning of life while trapped in a fatal love-death-faith triangle.. I am so glad that Tchaikovsky's fame began to expand outside Russia as he was perhaps the first Russian composer to think seriously about his country's place in European musical culture.
Sincerely yours Igor
"I am a Russian composer of the Romantic era. I wrote many symphonies, operas, ballets, instrumental and chamber music, and songs, including the ballets" Swan Lake", "The Sleeping Beauty", " The Nutcracker", 1812 Overture, First Piano Concerto; my last tree numbered symphonies and the opera "Eugene Onegin". The role of history is to re-assess my talent. New generations may put a new light on my musical work thus making me more modern and required.
I died in1893 at the age of 53. My name is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky"