Gustavo Brocanello: The Peter Tchaikovsky Story

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. One of my favorites – if not my favorite – composer. Of all the periods in classical music, the Baroque and the Romantic period (to which Tchaikovsky belongs) are the ones who touch me deeply. Maybe it is because, as good friend once told me, I have a “tempestuous soul”, which responds to dramatic elements in any way the present themselves in art.

But Tchaikovsky doesn’t grasp my attention just because of that. What I find interesting about him is that his musical talent stayed dormant for many years, covered by childhood traumas and a civil service career that had no connection to his inclinations whatsoever. It took him a great deal of courage to give it all up to pursue his musical path and, dare I say, even more courage to let that musical genius find his voice.

I do not intend here to write Tchaikovsky biography. I am certainly not qualified to the task and a blog is certainly not the medium. But I am posting some still pictures (with brief comments) of a Disney movie: “The Peter Tchaikovsky story”, aired in January 30, 1959.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a small town in present-day Udmurtia, formerly province of Vyatka in the Russian Empire, to a family with a long line of military service.

In 1843, Tchaikovsky's parents hired a French governess, Fanny Dürbach, to look after their children. The governess, albeit strict, was an emotional counterpart to Tchaikovsky mother, which he described as cold and distant. It was Fanny who read Tchaikovsky the tale of "Sleeping Beauty", which many years later would become the inspiration for his ballet.

Tchaikovsky started taking piano lessons at the age of five and was a precocious student. Although his parents were enthusiastic about his musical inclinations at the bedinning, their support cooled and decided Pyotr would be better off in a different career path.

Tchaikovsky graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with the rank of titular counselor, but he eventually gave up the career and put himself in the hands of Anton Rubinstein...

...who decided to give him a challenge one day. Tchaikovsky was to compose variations of a simple theme Rubinstein had given him. And, he stressed, for variations not only quality, but also quantity counted.

And when Rubinstein was expection about a dozen, Tchaikovsky presented him with "only" 215 variations. His talent was then evident!

Already a composer, Tchaikovsky meet the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt, whom he fell in love with and wrote many musical pieces for.

Artôt and Tchaikovsky were engaged, even though his biographers spectulate that Tchaikovsky was actually a closet homossexual. Through his letters they were able to gather that he knew he was different, never acted on it, but that didn't cause him any psychological dilemma. Here's an excerpt of one of his letters: "I am so set in my habits and tastes that it is not possible to cast them aside all at once like an old glove. And besides, I am far from possessing a will of iron, and since my last letters to you I have already surrendered some three times to the force of my natural tendencies. Would you imagine ! One of these days I even went to Bulatov’s country estate, and his house is nothing but a pederastic bordello. As if it were not enough that I had been there, I fell in love as a cat with his coachman !!! So you are perfectly right when you say in your letter that it is not possible to restrain oneself, despites all vows, from one’s weaknesses." I don't know how much of that is relevant to his artistic work. Would his ballets and concertos be any different had he embraced his sexuality? (If he were in fact homossexual, that is). I'm not fit to say. I don't think anyone is. And we can't forget his life span (1840-1893): that's a different time, with different needs, views and concepts.

Regardless of how Tchaikovsky really felt, Artôt eventually left him, marrying another singer from her company. This devastated him. But with time, he married another woman, Antonina Miliukova. But their marriage was brief. He had an emotional breakdown which caused his separation. They remained legally married, but never lived together nor had any children.

He reached his musical maturity, decided not to marry again as a "camouflage or escape". All these experiences instilled in him his creative genius...

Which led to one of his most famous Ballets, "The Swan Lake".

Ironically, the ballet didn't appeal to the public. In fact, it the audiences vehemently rejected it.

Distraught, Tchaikovsky took a trip around the capitals of Europe. He wanted to get away from critics and all the ones who didn't understand his music. And in one stormy night in particular, he couldn't sleep. His mind was filled with notes, bits and pieces that wouldn't let him rest. Getting up, he saw that he had packed, without knowing why, the manuscript for a new ballet: "Sleeping Beauty".