What do you think?
Rate this book
Tchaikovsky: A Biography
Written for the layman, this new biography of the world's most popular composer contains previously unrevealed material gathered from Russian files about his probable suicide at the age of 53 after being threatened with the exposure of his homosexuality. of photos.
490 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 1995
13 people are currently reading
459 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Holden
93 books22 followersAnthony Holden is an English writer, broadcaster and critic, particularly known as a biographer of artists.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 14, 2007
Somebody needs to make a movie of this some day. Great stuff for the cinema: a confirmed bachelor who chucks a career as a lawyer to pursue a glamorous life as a composer with the help of a mysterious benefactress. Living a life of unrequited and brokenhearted love only to die an unexplained death at the height of his creative powers. I say Jospeh Fiennes needs to play the starring role.
Read
September 8, 2023A friend who I trust a lot recommended me this after I read and adored Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner. I can see why: what I loved about Turner's life is that he is a man across time periods (Georgian into Victorian) and his personality and professional career bear that out. I also love Turner's work.
Tchaikovsky exists at a similar moment for his country as Turner: the increasing professionalization of an artistic career, anxiety about what France is doing, a simultaneous movement toward modernity and conservatism as respective monarchs take control of the empire (Victoria and Alexander III).
And like Turner, Tchaikovsky, The Man, can be hard to root for. He was a self-conscious misanthrope and misogynist. I had to take a long break from the book after I read the chapters about his marriage, where his behavior makes up some of the cruelest, non-violent behavior I have ever seen one human do to another. I'm surprised any of the reviews call Tchaikovsky a "great man" because the biography takes the angle, and I agree, that he was a small and petty man, but also that does not belie the greatness of his achievements.
But I enjoy reading that book more than an book that sells Tchaikovsky as a Great Man of Art. The joy of reading biographies is connecting an abstracted person to their quirks and peccadillos and beefs.
Additionally--the subject of Tchaikovsky's queerness, from a book published in 1995 that seems to believe it is being sympathetic toward it, was fascinating. I am sure there is a more recent book that "handles" "it" "better," but again, I like the angles. I felt like I was learning both about Imperial Russia talked about homosexuality and how academic intellegensia of the early 90s talked about it.
Favorite Tchaikovsky pieces (that I listened to while reading): Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70, especially the Adagio, the second movement of the first String quartet (Andante cantabile), Francesca da Rimini, all the ballets, Violin Concerto, and Eugene Onegin (duh)
Tchaikovsky exists at a similar moment for his country as Turner: the increasing professionalization of an artistic career, anxiety about what France is doing, a simultaneous movement toward modernity and conservatism as respective monarchs take control of the empire (Victoria and Alexander III).
And like Turner, Tchaikovsky, The Man, can be hard to root for. He was a self-conscious misanthrope and misogynist. I had to take a long break from the book after I read the chapters about his marriage, where his behavior makes up some of the cruelest, non-violent behavior I have ever seen one human do to another. I'm surprised any of the reviews call Tchaikovsky a "great man" because the biography takes the angle, and I agree, that he was a small and petty man, but also that does not belie the greatness of his achievements.
But I enjoy reading that book more than an book that sells Tchaikovsky as a Great Man of Art. The joy of reading biographies is connecting an abstracted person to their quirks and peccadillos and beefs.
Additionally--the subject of Tchaikovsky's queerness, from a book published in 1995 that seems to believe it is being sympathetic toward it, was fascinating. I am sure there is a more recent book that "handles" "it" "better," but again, I like the angles. I felt like I was learning both about Imperial Russia talked about homosexuality and how academic intellegensia of the early 90s talked about it.
Favorite Tchaikovsky pieces (that I listened to while reading): Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70, especially the Adagio, the second movement of the first String quartet (Andante cantabile), Francesca da Rimini, all the ballets, Violin Concerto, and Eugene Onegin (duh)
August 23, 2013
More of a psychoanalysis than a biography, but still really interesting.
June 12, 2021
I've always loved the music of Tchaikovsky and read this biography back in college in order to get some insight into the kind of genius that could create some of the most beautiful music ever written. The biography is highly informative and covers every aspect of Tchaikovsky's life as well as the stories behind some of his best loved compositions. It also covers his homosexuality as well as his efforts to cover his sexually by way of a doomed marriage and his eventual, possible suicide, by knowingly drinking a glass of cholera tainted water in front of his friends (the book speculates that his secret was going to be revealed to the public if he did not take his own life). It's an excellent read for anyone interested in the composer and his music.
July 27, 2018
What an interesting, if difficult life for this great composer. A homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that), a pedophile (yes there is something wrong with that), and with a family ravaged by opium addiction, although Tchaikovsky himself was not an addict. His homosexuality haunted him throughout his life, and he lived in constant fear of his secret being made public. He once even got married, in hopes that it would make him a "normal" man, but the marriage proved disastrous. After one year under the same roof with his wife Tchaikovsky moved out, never to live with her again. Though his wife would continue to stalk him throughout his life, and threaten to reveal his homosexuality to the public unless he constantly gave her money. His cause of death at the age of 53 is not certain to this day- some say he died of cholera and others say he committed suicide by drinking poison. The symptoms of cholera and arsenic poisoning are very similar. A great biography.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2019
A Great Biography of a Great Man
I've been searching for years for a good biography of Tchaikovsky -- one that dealt frankly with his homosexuality --and this is it. Beautifully researched, sympathetic, and absorbing, I absolutely devoured this book. I felt that it really captured the man, as well as the horrible pressures he must have been subjected to at the time. I can't recommend it enough. I loved it.
I've been searching for years for a good biography of Tchaikovsky -- one that dealt frankly with his homosexuality --and this is it. Beautifully researched, sympathetic, and absorbing, I absolutely devoured this book. I felt that it really captured the man, as well as the horrible pressures he must have been subjected to at the time. I can't recommend it enough. I loved it.
Read
May 10, 2025Started reading on his birthday, great source documents… but a lot of disturbing content, especially Tchaikovsky’s relationships with minors. 🤮
While he made a lot of bad decisions, he does seem like a very human person with a big heart, supporting lots of destitute people and starting charities, caregiving for family, etc. The fact his funeral was the biggest in Russia says something good about their culture, that they revered beauty in music so much. Def won’t reread.
While he made a lot of bad decisions, he does seem like a very human person with a big heart, supporting lots of destitute people and starting charities, caregiving for family, etc. The fact his funeral was the biggest in Russia says something good about their culture, that they revered beauty in music so much. Def won’t reread.
January 2, 2023
Tchaikovsky's unhinged life story is an automatic five stars, but this partly biased partly homophobic retelling gets four.
February 4, 2016
A biography about the man, not the music. Knowing about him helps to understand the music, but it is not necessary to know the music to appreciate the portrayal of the man. I liked that the book is about Tchaikovsky the man, not Tchaikovsky the composer. The biographer had access to private papers, diaries, letters, etc. which were not available before the fall of the USSR. Therefore, the reader does not get a. sanitized version of the life of Russia's most beloved composer. We see him with all of his foibles, insecurities, and nastiness. The book is an interesting depiction of a tortured creative soul who created some of the most beautiful music ever written
July 25, 2011
I've read this twice, and both times were riveting. This is a great book about an amazing composer.
June 8, 2013
Extremely gifted man packaged in an unhappy shell. The author did a great job of portraying the man and the era.
March 1, 2015
Reads like a novel, which says less about Holden's writing and more about Tchaikovsky's tragic life.
April 6, 2015
got a little dry at parts
October 21, 2016
Very good. More about the man than the music.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews