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Russian composers and Russian music are
eagerly studied by those who would
keep abreast of the time. This music is so saturated with strong,
vigorous life that it is inspiring to listen to. Its rugged strength,
its
fascinating rhythms, bring a new message. It is different from the
music
of other countries and at once attracts by its unusual melodies and its
richness of harmony.
Among the numerous composers of modern
Russia, the name of Peter
Ilyitch
Tschaikowsky stands out most prominently. This distinctive composer was
born on April 28, 1840, in Votinsk, where his father, who was a mining
engineer, had been appointed inspector of the mines at Kamsko-Votinsk.
The
position of manager of such important mines carried with it much
luxury, a
fine house, plenty of servants and an ample salary. Thus the future
young
musician's home life was not one of poverty and privation, as has been
the
lot of so many gifted ones, who became creators in the beautiful art of
music.
Peter Ilyitch was less than five years
old when a new governess came
into
the family, to teach his elder brother Nicholas and his cousin Lydia.
As a
little boy he was apt to be untidy, with buttons missing and rumpled
hair.
But his nature was so affectionate and sympathetic that he charmed
every
one with his pretty, loving ways. This natural gift he always retained.
The governess was a very superior person and her influence over her
young
charges was healthful and beneficial. The child Peter was most
industrious
at his lessons; but for recreation often preferred playing the piano,
reading, or writing poetry, to playing with other children.
When Peter was eight, the family moved
to St. Petersburg, and the two
younger boys were sent to boarding school. The parting from his home
but
especially from his mother—though he saw her once a week—nearly broke
his heart. Such a school was no place for a sensitive, high-strung boy
like
Peter, who needed the most tender fostering care. The work of the
school
was very heavy, the hours long. The boys often sat over their books
till
far into the night. Besides the school work, Peter had music lessons of
the
pianist Philipov, and made rapid progress. At this time music in
general
excited the boy abnormally; a hand organ in the street would enchant
him,
an orchestra strangely agitated him. He seemed to live at a high
strung,
nervous tension, and had frequent ailments, which kept him out of
school.
In 1849 the father secured another
appointment, this time at Alapaiev,
a
little town, where, though there was not so much luxury, the family
tried
to revive the home life of Votinsk.
No one at Alapaiev seemed to take any
interest in the boy Peter's
music. He
was really making great progress, for he had learned much in the
lessons he
had taken in St. Petersburg. He studied many pieces by himself, and
often
improvised at the piano. His parents did nothing to further his musical
education; this may have been because they were afraid of a return of
the nervous disorders that the quiet of the present home surroundings
had
seemed to cure.
From the fact that the father had held
government appointments, his
sons
were eligible for education at the School of Jurisprudence. Peter was
accordingly entered there as a scholar, and completed his course at the
age
of nineteen. In those nine years the child Peter developed into
maturity.
During this period he suffered the loss of his mother, a handsome and
very
estimable woman, whom he adored with passionate devotion, and from whom
he
could never bear to be separated.
While attending the Law School, music
had to be left in the background.
His
family and companions only considered it as a pastime at best, and
without
serious significance; he therefore kept his aspirations to himself. The
old boyish discontent and irritability, which were the result of his
former nervous condition, had now given place to his natural frankness
of
character and charm of manner, which attracted all who came in contact
with
him.
In 1859, when Peter had finished his
studies at the School of
Jurisprudence, he received an appointment in the Ministry of Justice,
as
clerk of the first class. This would have meant much to some young men,
but did not greatly impress Peter, as he did not seem to take his work
very
seriously. During the three years in which he held the post, he
followed
the fashion of the day, attended the opera and theater, meanwhile
receiving
many impressions which molded his character and tastes. The opera "Don
Giovanni," Mozart's masterpiece, made a deep impression upon him, also
the
acting of Adelaide Ristori and the singing of Lagrona.
The new Conservatoire of Music was
founded at St. Petersburg in 1862,
with
Anton Rubinstein as director, and Tschaikowsky lost no time in entering
as
a pupil, studying composition and kindred subjects with Professor
Zaremba.
His progress was so rapid in the several branches he took up—piano,
organ
and flute—that Rubinstein advised him to make music his profession, and
throw his law studies to the winds. Thanks to Rubinstein, he secured
some pupils and also engagements as accompanist. Meanwhile he worked
industriously at composition, and one of his pieces was a Concert
Overture
in F, scored for small orchestra. In 1865 he took his diploma as a
musician
and also secured a silver medal for a cantata. One year after this the
Moscow Conservatoire was founded, with Nicholas Rubinstein at its head.
The position of Professor of Composition and Musical History was
offered to
Tschaikowsky, then only twenty-six. It was a flattering offer for so
young
a man, when many older heads would have liked to secure such an honor.
He moved to Moscow, and retained his position in the Conservatoire for
at
least twelve years, in the meantime making many friends for himself and
his
art, as his fame as a composer grew. One of these friends was the
publisher
Jurgenson, who was to play rather an important part in the composer's
life,
through accepting and putting forth his compositions.
During those first years in Moscow,
Tschaikowsky made his home with
Nicholas Rubinstein. His life was of the simplest, his fare always so.
Later on when money was more abundant, and he had his own house in the
country, he lived with just the same simplicity. One would think that
all
this care and thought for expense would have taught him the value of
money.
Not at all. He never could seem to learn its value, never cared for it,
and never could keep it. He liked to toss his small change among groups
of street boys, and it is said he once spent his last roubles in
sending
a cablegram to von Bülow in America, to thank him for his
admirable
performance of his first Piano Concerto. Often his friends protested
against this prodigality, but it was no use to protest, and at last
they
gave up in despair.
Soon after he began his professorship in
Moscow, he composed a Concert
Overture in C minor. To his surprise and disappointment, Rubinstein
disapproved of the work in every way. This was a shock, after the lack
of
encouragement in St. Petersburg. But he recovered his poise, though he
made
up his mind to try his next work in St. Petersburg instead of Moscow.
He
called the new piece a Symphonic Poem, "Winter Daydreams," but it is
now
known as the First Symphony, Op. 13. About the end of 1866, he started
out
with it, only to be again rebuffed and cast down. The two men whose
good
opinion he most desired, Anton Rubinstein and Professor Zaremba, could
find
nothing good in his latest work, and the young composer returned to
Moscow
to console himself with renewed efforts in composition. Two years later
the
"Winter Daydreams" Symphony was produced in Moscow with great success,
and its author was much encouraged by this appreciation. He was, like
most composers, very sensitive to criticism and had a perfect dread of
controversy. Efforts to engage him in arguments of this sort only made
him
withdraw into himself.
Tschaikowsky held the operas of Mozart
before him as his ideal. He
cared
little for Wagner, considering his music dramas to be built on false
principles. Thus his first opera, "Voivoda," composed in 1866,
evidently
had his ideal, Mozart, clearly in mind. It is a somewhat curious fact
that
Tschaikowsky, who was almost revolutionary in other forms of music,
should
go back to the eighteenth century for his ideal of opera. Soon after it
was completed "Voivoda" was accepted to be produced at the Moscow Grand
Theater. The libretto was written by Ostrowsky, one of the celebrated
dramatists of the day. The first performance took place on January 30,
1869. We are told it had several performances and considerable popular
success. But the composer was dissatisfied with its failure to win a
great
artistic success, and burnt the score. He did the same with his next
work,
an orchestral fantaisie, entitled "Fatum." Again he did the same with
the
score of a complete opera, "Undine," finished in 1870, and refused at
the
St. Petersburg Opera, where he had offered it.
"The Snow Queen," a fairy play with
music, was the young Russian's next
adventure; it was mounted and produced with great care, yet it failed
to
make a favorable impression. But these disappointments did not dampen
the
composer's ardor for work. Now it was in the realm of chamber music. Up
to
this time he had not seemed to care greatly for this branch of his art,
for
he had always felt the lack of tone coloring and variety in the
strings.
The first attempt at a String Quartet resulted in the one in D major,
Op. 11. To-day, fifty years after, we enjoy the rich coloring, the
characteristic rhythms of this music; the Andante indeed makes special
appeal. A bit of history about this same Andante shows how the composer
prized national themes and folk tunes, and strove to secure them. It
is said that morning after morning he was awakened by the singing of a
laborer, working on the house below his window. The song had a haunting
lilt, and Tschaikowsky wrote it down. The melody afterwards became that
touching air which fills the Andante of the First String Quartet.
Another
String Quartet, in F major, was written in 1814, and at once acclaimed
by
all who heard it, with the single exception of Anton Rubinstein.
Tschaikowsky wrote six Symphonies in
all. The Second, in C minor was
composed in 1873; in this he used themes in the first and last
movements,
which were gathered in Little Russia. The work was produced with great
success in Moscow in 1873. The next orchestral composition was a
Symphonic
Poem, called "The Tempest," with a regular program, prepared by
Stassow. It
was brought out in Paris at the same time it was heard in Moscow. Both
at home and in France it made a deep impression. The next work was the
splendid piano Concerto in B flat minor, Op. 23, the first of three
works
of this kind. At a trial performance of it, his friend and former
master,
Nicholas Rubinstein, to whom it was dedicated, and who had promised to
play
the piano part, began to criticize it unmercifully and ended by saying
it
was quite unplayable, and unsuited to the piano.
No one could blame the composer for
being offended and hurt. He at once
erased the name of Nicholas Rubinstein from the title page and
dedicated
the work to Hans von Billow, who not long after performed it with
tremendous success in America, where he was on tour. When we think of
all
the pianists who have won acclaim in this temperamental, inspiring
work,
from Carreno to Percy Grainger, to mention two who have aroused special
enthusiasm by their thrilling performance of it, we can but wonder that
his
own countrymen were so short sighted at the time it was composed. Later
on
Nicholas Rubinstein gave a superb performance of the Concerto in
Moscow,
thus making some tardy amends for his unkindness.
Tschaikowsky was now thirty-five. Most
of his time was given to the
Conservatoire, where he often worked nine hours a day. Besides, he had
written a book on harmony, and was contributing articles on music to
two
journals. In composition he had produced large works, including up to
this
time, two Symphonies, two Operas, the Concerto, two String Quartets and
numerous smaller pieces. To accomplish such an amount of work, he must
have
possessed immense energy and devotion to his ideals.
One of the operas just mentioned was
entitled "Vakoula the Smith." It
bears
the date of 1874, and was first offered in competition with others. The
result was that it not only was considered much the best work of them
all but it won both the first and second prizes. "Vakoula" was
splendidly
mounted and performed in St. Petersburg, at the Marinsky Theater at
least
seventeen times. Ten years later, in January 1887, it appeared again.
The
composer meanwhile had re-written a good part of it and now called it
"Two
Little Shoes." This time Tschaikowsky was invited to conduct his own
work.
The invitation filled him with alarm, for he felt he had no gift in
that
direction, as he had tried a couple of times in the early years of his
career and had utterly failed. However, he now, through the cordial
sympathy of friends, decided to make the attempt. Contrary to his own
fears, he obtained a successful performance of the opera.
It proved an epoch-making occasion. For
this first success as conductor
led
him to undertake a three months' tour through western Europe in 1888.
On
his return to St. Petersburg he conducted a program of his own
compositions
for the Philharmonic Society, which was also successful, in spite of
the
intense nervousness which he always suffered. As a result of his
concert he
received offers to conduct concerts in Hamburg, Dresden, Leipsic,
Vienna,
Copenhagen and London, many of which he accepted.
To go back a bit in our composer's life
story, to an affair of the
heart
which he experienced in 1868. He became engaged to the well-known
singer
Désirée Artôt; the affair never went further, for
what reason is not known.
He was not yet thirty, impressionable and intense. Later on, in the
year 1877, at the age of thirty-seven, he became a married man. How
this
happened was doubtless told in his diaries, which were written with
great
regularity: but unfortunately he destroyed them all a few years before
his
death. The few facts that have been gleaned from his intimate friend,
M.
Kashkin, are that he was engaged to the lady in the spring of this
year,
and married her a month or so afterward. It was evidently a hasty
affair
and subsequently brought untold suffering to the composer. When the
professors of his Conservatoire re-assembled in the autumn,
Tschaikowsky
appeared among them a married man, but looking the picture of despair.
A few weeks later he fled from Moscow, and when next heard of was
lying dangerously ill in St. Petersburg. One thing was evident, the
ill-considered marriage came very near ruining his life. The doctors
ordered rest and change of scene, and his brother Modeste Ilyitch took
him to Switzerland and afterward to Italy. The peaceful life and change
of
scene did much to restore his shattered nerves. Just at this time a
wealthy
widow lady, Madame von Meek, a great admirer of Tschaikowsky's music,
learning of his sad condition, settled on him a generous yearly
allowance
for life. He was now independent and could give his time to
composition.
The following year he returned to Moscow
and seemed quite his natural
self.
A fever of energy for work took possession of him. He began a new
opera,
"Eugen Onégin," and completed his Fourth Symphony, in F minor.
The score of
the opera was finished in February, 1878, and sent at once to Moscow,
where
the first performance was given in March 1879. In the beginning the
opera
had only a moderate success, but gradually grew in favor till, after
five
years, it was performed in St. Petersburg and had an excellent
reception.
It is considered Tschaikowsky's most successful opera, sharing with
Glinka's "Life of the Tsar" the popularity of Russian opera. In 1881 he
was
invited to compose an orchestral work for the consecration of the
Temple
of Christ in Moscow. The "Solemn Overture 1812," Op. 49, was the
outcome of
this. Later in the year he completed the Second Piano Concerto. The
Piano
Trio in A minor, "To the memory of a great artist," Op. 50, refers to
his
friend and former master, Nicholas Rubinstein, who passed away in
Paris, in
1881.
Tschaikowsky's opera, "Mazeppa," was his
next important work. In the
same
year the Second Orchestral Suite, Op. 53, and the Third, Op. 55,
followed.
Two Symphonic Poems, "Manfred" and "Hamlet" came next. The latter of
these
was written at the composer's country house, whose purchase had been
made
possible by the generosity of his benefactress, and to which he retired
at
the age of forty-five, to lead a peaceful country life. He had
purchased
the old manor house of Frovolo, on the outskirts of the town of Klin,
near
Moscow. Here his two beautiful ballets and two greatest Symphonies, the
Fifth and Sixth, were written. The Fifth Symphony was composed in 1888
and
published the next year. On its first hearing it made little impression
and
was scarcely heard again till Nikisch, with unerring judgment, rescued
it from neglect; then the world discovered it to be one of the
composer's
greatest works.
Tschaikowsky's two last operas, the
"Pique Dame" (Queen of Spades), Op.
68, and "King Rene's Daughter" are not considered in any way
distinctive,
although the former was performed in New York, at the Metropolitan. The
Third Piano Concerto, Op. 75, occupied the master during his last days
at
Frovolo; it was left unfinished by him and was completed by the
composer
Taneiev. The wonderful Sixth Symphony, Op. 74, is a superb example of
Tschaikowsky's genius. It was composed in 1893, and the title
"Pathetic"
was given it by the composer after its first performance, in St.
Petersburg, shortly before his death, as the reception of it by the
public
did not meet his anticipations. In this work the passion and despair
which
fill so many of the master's finest compositions, rise to the highest
tragic significance. The last movement, with its prophetic intimation
of
his coming death, is heart-breaking. One cannot listen to its poignant
phrases without deep emotion. The score is dated August 81, 1893. On
October twelfth, Tschaikowsky passed away in St. Petersburg, a victim
of
cholera.
A couple of years before he passed away,
Tschiakowsky came to America.
In
May, 1891, he conducted four concerts connected with the formal opening
of
Carnegie Hall, New York. Many people remembered his interesting
personality, as
he stood before the orchestra, conducting many of his own works, with
Adele
Aus der Ohe playing his famous Concerto in B flat minor.
The music of this representative Russian
composer has made rapid
headway
in the world's appreciation, during the last century. Once heard it
will
always be remembered. For we can never forget the deeply human and
touching message which is brought to us through the music of Peter
Ilyitch
Tschaikowsky.
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