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Pyotr Tchaikovsky
When Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died of cholera in 1893, he was without a doubt Russia’s most celebrated composer. Drawing extensively on Tchaikovsky’s uncensored letters and diaries, this richly documented biography explores the composer’s life and works, as well as the larger and richly robust artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russian society, which would propel Tchaikovsky into international spotlight.
Setting aside clichés of Tchaikovsky as a tortured homosexual and naively confessional artist, Philip Ross Bullock paints a new and vivid portrait of the composer that weaves together insights into his music with a sensitive account of his inner emotional life. He looks at Tchaikovsky’s appeal to wealthy and influential patrons such as Nadezhda von Meck and Tsar Alexander III, and he examines Russia’s growing hunger at the time for serious classical music. Following Tchaikovsky through his celebrity up until his 1891 performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall and his honorary doctorate at the University of Cambridge, Bullock offers an accessible but deeply informed window onto Tchaikovsky’s life and works.
Setting aside clichés of Tchaikovsky as a tortured homosexual and naively confessional artist, Philip Ross Bullock paints a new and vivid portrait of the composer that weaves together insights into his music with a sensitive account of his inner emotional life. He looks at Tchaikovsky’s appeal to wealthy and influential patrons such as Nadezhda von Meck and Tsar Alexander III, and he examines Russia’s growing hunger at the time for serious classical music. Following Tchaikovsky through his celebrity up until his 1891 performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall and his honorary doctorate at the University of Cambridge, Bullock offers an accessible but deeply informed window onto Tchaikovsky’s life and works.
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2016
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About the author
Philip Ross Bullock
13 books3 followersPhilip Ross Bullock is a British academic. He is a Professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford, a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and the academic director of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). He is the recipient of the 2009 Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern Languages, and the author or editor of several books.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 29, 2017
I am very fond of much of the music composed by Tchaikovsky. The ballet suites Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker all contain beautiful melodies. There is melancholia too in his work. Who is not moved by the 2nd movement of the String Quartet No.1, the requiem like Symphony No.6 Pathétique or the soaring Romeo & Juliet Fantasy?
This account of Tchaikovsky’s life by Philip Ross Bullock, Professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford is just one of the series Critical Lives published by Reaktion Books. Bullock draws extensively on the composer’s uncensored letters and diaries and explores Tchaikovsky’s central place within the artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russia. The composer was recognised as a figure of international renown.
Nadezhda von Meck was the wealthy widow of a railway magnate and became an influential patron to Tchaikovsky for many years. Much of his income came from her. Astonishing then that they never met, although they exchanged hundreds of letters. It came as a shock then, when in 1890 she suddenly withdrew her patronage following what appeared to be her own financial ruin.
It was well known amongst members of his family and his peers and associates that Tchaikovsky was homosexual and naively confessional. He yearned for a quiet life and found the social obligations that fame entailed - burdensome. His marriage ‘of convenience’ in 1877 to Antonina Milyukova was short lived. His letters at that time showed a sense of anxiety and foreboding. The marriage was never consummated.
Tchaikovsky’s sudden and unexpected death in October 1893 occurred just nine days after the first performance of the Pathétique. He died from cholera at the age of 53.
Bullock’s account will be of significant interest for all those who enjoy classical music, containing as it does introductions to the composer’s most recognised pieces and a select Discography.
5 stars from me for this comprehensive insight into Russia’s most celebrated composer.
This account of Tchaikovsky’s life by Philip Ross Bullock, Professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford is just one of the series Critical Lives published by Reaktion Books. Bullock draws extensively on the composer’s uncensored letters and diaries and explores Tchaikovsky’s central place within the artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russia. The composer was recognised as a figure of international renown.
Nadezhda von Meck was the wealthy widow of a railway magnate and became an influential patron to Tchaikovsky for many years. Much of his income came from her. Astonishing then that they never met, although they exchanged hundreds of letters. It came as a shock then, when in 1890 she suddenly withdrew her patronage following what appeared to be her own financial ruin.
It was well known amongst members of his family and his peers and associates that Tchaikovsky was homosexual and naively confessional. He yearned for a quiet life and found the social obligations that fame entailed - burdensome. His marriage ‘of convenience’ in 1877 to Antonina Milyukova was short lived. His letters at that time showed a sense of anxiety and foreboding. The marriage was never consummated.
Tchaikovsky’s sudden and unexpected death in October 1893 occurred just nine days after the first performance of the Pathétique. He died from cholera at the age of 53.
Bullock’s account will be of significant interest for all those who enjoy classical music, containing as it does introductions to the composer’s most recognised pieces and a select Discography.
5 stars from me for this comprehensive insight into Russia’s most celebrated composer.
August 27, 2023
An exceptional biography, really well written and carefully laid out. I really enjoyed that Bullock doesn't fall into the cliché of portraying Tchaikovsky as being constantly tormented by his homosexuality throughout his entire life, but instead provides a more in depth and complete image of Tchaikovsky. Yes, he struggled with coming to terms with his homosexuality but this was not his only inner battle.
The biography is told through his compositions and what Tchaikovsky went through as he wrote them, many of his works are thoroughly analysed on this book and also interesting comparisons are made with his predecessors and contemporaries.
Not a lot of emphasis is done on his compositions for ballet and this was a good thing, because the stories behind his operas and symphonies are very fascinating as well.
I enjoyed how Bullock avoids extracting psychological meanings from Tchaikovsky's works and instead provides factual evidence of what he actually was going through at the moment, leaving the interpretation of his music open.
I am very glad to have chosen this specific biography and would definitely recommend for anyone with an interest in Tchaikovsky.
The biography is told through his compositions and what Tchaikovsky went through as he wrote them, many of his works are thoroughly analysed on this book and also interesting comparisons are made with his predecessors and contemporaries.
Not a lot of emphasis is done on his compositions for ballet and this was a good thing, because the stories behind his operas and symphonies are very fascinating as well.
I enjoyed how Bullock avoids extracting psychological meanings from Tchaikovsky's works and instead provides factual evidence of what he actually was going through at the moment, leaving the interpretation of his music open.
I am very glad to have chosen this specific biography and would definitely recommend for anyone with an interest in Tchaikovsky.
May 12, 2023
A mi personalmente me ha comenzado a gustar la música de este compositor, y probablemente todos lo conozcamos por sus obras de ballet. Lo interesante es que este libro me abrió a su vida y he descubierto otras composisiones fantáticas, como el concierto para violín o la sinfonía número 1. En libo nos cuenta sobre su familia, su vida personal marcada por su homosexualidad que tuvo que verse encubierta toda su vida. Es un libro con muchos datos interesantes para comprender las composiciones de est gran ícono de la música rusa..
January 23, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed Bullock's use of Tchaikovsky's letters as these added a sense of personal dimension often forgotten in other biographies. He has a very clear writing style, tactful to the sensitive parts of Tchaikovsky's life and career and keenly aware of different interpretations. More analysis of his music woven into the biography might have been needed to give a fuller picture of the composer we know today but as a critical biography it does its job very well.
June 23, 2025
The author gave lots of room for the letters and let the biographic subject speak for himself. There’s a quiet dignity in this biography. I appreciate that this biographer didn’t try to psychoanalyze the composer’s music. Instead, Bullock focused on how Tchaikovsky’s music conveys its expressiveness and how that was received and how the composers navigated its reception and what led him to his next projects. This book was shorter than I expected, I wish it was like 50%-100% longer. This book felt like a much needed corrective to Tchaikovsky the man and the artist that dispelled the myths and fallacious lore. Not to pathologize, but I honestly read him as more of an obsessive personality type than manic or depressive. The only other book/movie I’ve read set in this specific world is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. This is the first biography I’ve read about any composer.
December 4, 2018
This concise story of Tchaikovsky is a good way to appreciate Pyotr's life story and how it is intertwined with his composing. Bullock does point out that too many analysts try to read personal detail into Tchaikovsky's compositions: was he expressing his feelings, especially about sexuality? The wonder of it is how prolific he was as a composer and generally, how he fit in his own skin, without regard to outside influence. Bravo!
March 26, 2023
Great composer, passable biography.
March 27, 2023
O biografie excelenta ! O adevarata placere aceasta carte. Azi am descoperit de ce imi plac biografiile,pana acum nu m-am gandit :)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews