Tchaikovsky's Empire: A New Life of Russia's Greatest Composer

by Simon Morrison

A thrilling new biography of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—composer of some of the world’s most popular orchestral and theatrical music
 
Tchaikovsky is famous for all the wrong reasons. Portrayed as a hopeless romantic, a suffering melancholic, or a morbid obsessive, the Tchaikovsky we think we know is a shadow of the fascinating reality. It is all too easy to forget that he composed an empire’s worth of music, and navigated the imperial Russian court to great advantage.
 
In this iconoclastic biography, celebrated author Simon Morrison re-creates Tchaikovsky’s complex world. His life and art were framed by Russian national ambition, and his work was the emanation of an imperial kaleidoscopic, capacious, cosmopolitan, decentred.
 
Morrison reexamines the relationship between Tchaikovsky’s music, personal life, and politics; his support of Tsars Alexander II and III; and his engagement with the cultures of the imperial margins, in Ukraine, Poland, and the Caucasus. Tchaikovsky’s Empire unsettles everything we thought we knew—and gives us a vivid new appreciation of Russia’s most popular composer.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

Published August 27, 2024

About the author

Simon Morrison is Professor of Music History at Princeton, where he earned his PhD in musicology. A leading authority on composer Serge Prokofiev, he is the author of The People's Artist, along with numerous scholarly articles, and features for the New York Times. In 2011, Morrison was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Reviews

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this biography of Tchaikovsky is quite misleading. The book is largely about his music, not his empire or life. The book skips over his childhood and the narrative doesn't really start until his late 20s when he starts serious composition.

What it does have is a fairly detailed outline of many of Tchaikovsky's compositions, their genesis, the first production(s) and early reviews. Not many of his works seemed to have been well received!

There is little mention of his homosexuality and the long relationship with Nadezhda von Meck is not gone into in much detail. To be fair, the author doesn't pretend to be writing a fully pledged biography, but I still think Tchaikovsky's Music would be a better title...

If you want to read about Tchaikovsky the man there are better books out there.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book when it stuck to the concept of looking at Tchaikovsky's output through his connections to the Russian Imperial system but this couldn't decide if it wanted to be a historical analysis or for the music nerds. Add in some annoying prose stylings (both in terms of quips and readability) and overlong quotes and it was a real slog to get through that didn't teach me much new about the composer (except about his stomach and bowel troubles, which, relatable).

[Ptjerónimo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Não tenho quaisquer dúvidas de que o A. é um conceituado musicólogo e um profundo conhecedor da música russa em geral e da de Tchaikovsky em particular. Contudo, fiquei também bem ciente, depois de ler este livro, de que é um escritor medíocre e que como biógrafo deixa muito a desejar . Esta biografia é uma das menos conseguidas que li na minha vida. Comecei a lê-la, muito esperançado e animado das melhores intenções, pensando que ia ler uma biografia do compositor que tanto me seduziu e emocionou na adolescência para, poucas páginas volvidas, me ver forçado a reconhecer que, quanto muito, estava a ler uma "biografia" das obras de Tchaikovsky. Com efeito, Morrison escreve profusamente sobre a génese e sucesso das muitas obras musicais escritas por Tchaikovsky, sobre colaborações que este manteve com outros compositores, sobre o mundo musical russo, etc, e muito pouco sobre o homem, a sua personalidade e as suas vivências. Nesse domínio, pouco aprendi com a leitura deste livro. Tchaikovsky continua a ser para mim tão opaco e misterioso como era antes de o começar a ler. De mencionar ainda (talvez devesse ter começado por aí...) que estruturalmente esta biografia é um caos, um monumento à desorganização e à dispersão. Mesmo um leitor mais conhecedor se deverá sentir inevitavelmente confuso e por vezes mesmo exasperado.

[Flewts · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much of this book covers operas, something I'm not interested in, and I wasn't aware it formed so much of Tchaikovsky's body of work. Morrison at times digs deep into the musical structure of the works, particularly annoying when it's a work I've never heard of, much less listened to. This isn't what T is known for today. The pieces he is known and loved for are a very small portion of this book. He does spend some effort on the ballets, but the symphonies--which are what I particularly enjoy--are barely more than extended program notes.

I was disappointed.

[Adele Erhardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Håller med en annan recension att titeln är missvisande. Boken handlar verkligen om en djupdykning av Tchaikovskys verk, typ inspirationen bakom och en beskrivning av hur varje sats låter och noter osv. Det är ju bra och så men jag kan inte nåt alls om musik teori och det blir därför svårt att hänga med. Jag skippade de delarna. Sedan var det lite för mycket fokus på dåtidens recensioner i tidningar och så. Det får det liksom att verka som han var ett totalt misslyckande, plus att det inte lägger till nåt intressant. Annars rätt klyftig!

[Riet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dit boek is een enorme tegenvaller. Het is beslist geen biografie van Tchaikovski, de man. Het gaat voornamelijk over zijn muziek en dat dan nog zo gedetailleeerd, dat alleen een musicoloog het kan volgen. Af en toe is er een aardig stukje over de verhouding van Tchaikovski tot de heersende tsaar, maar verder heel weinig over de situatie in het Rusland van zijn tijd.
Als ik niet beter wist, zou ik na lezen van dit boek geen muziek van Tchaikovski willen horen.

[Raphael Turcotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is too much musicology that doesn’t serve the stated purpose of the book. The book is organized with musical composition as section instead of being lead by the context (also not as stated by the author).

[Paul R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply the best Tchaikovsky bio ever written.

[Bryan Eid · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want a book analyzing Tchaikovsky's work, including every key change and chord progression, then this book is for you. But if you're looking for a biography of Tchaikovsky, then you should look elsewhere.