Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich 1840-93
Russian composer

Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in the Ural Mountains, the son of a government inspector of mines. His early musical talents were encouraged, but when the family moved to St Petersburg he entered the school of jurisprudence and started his working life as a minor civil servant. In 1862 he enrolled at the recently opened Conservatory, but after three years he was engaged by his previous orchestration teacher, Nicholas Rubinstein, to teach harmony at his new Conservatory in Moscow, which opened in 1866. His operas and 2nd ('Little Russian') Symphony (1872) brought him into the public eye, and in 1875 his Piano Concerto in B flat minor had its premi�re in Moscow.

He married a pupil, Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova, despite his homosexual tendencies, but left her a month after the wedding in a state of nervous collapse (1877). After recuperation abroad he resigned from the Conservatory and retired to the country to devote himself entirely to composition. He made occasional trips abroad and in 1893 was made an honorary Doctor of Music of Cambridge University.

At about the time of his marriage, Tchaikovsky received the moral and financial support of Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a wealthy engineer; although they never met, they corresponded regularly until 1890. Her support enabled him to devote himself entirely to composition.

Soon after his return to Russia from England in 1893, and after the first performance of his 6th ('Path�tique') symphony, he died in St Petersburg. He was said to have died of cholera from drinking unboiled water (perhaps deliberately), but more recent research (by Alexandra Orlova), published in 1979, suggests that he may have committed suicide through swallowing poison, at the behest of a 'court of honour', following his alleged relationship with a young male aristocrat.

Though acquainted with Mili Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov and other members of the group of late 19th-century composers known as The Five, he was not in sympathy with their avowedly nationalistic aspirations and their use of folk material, and was himself regarded by them as cosmopolitan and not genuinely Russian. The melodiousness, colourful orchestration, and deeply expressive content of his music brought him then and now an enthusiastic following exceeding that of any other Russian composer.

Tchaikovsky's introspective and melancholy nature is reflected in some of his symphonies and orchestral pieces, but much less in his ballet music, Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892), which have formed the core of the classical repertory. Other works include six symphonies, of which the last three are the best-known, two piano concertos (a third was left uncompleted), a violin concerto, a number of tone poems including Romeo and Juliet (1870, dedicated to Balakirev) and Italian Capriccio, songs and piano pieces. He also wrote chamber music, including a piano trio and three string quartets. Of his 11 operas, Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (1890) are still regularly performed, and Mazeppa (1884) occasionally.

Bibliography: Documentary evidence is given in D Brown, Tchaikovsky Remembered (1993). The standard biography is D Brown, Tchaikovsky: A Biographical and Critical Study (3 vols, 1978-91); for a shorter account, see E Garden, Tchaikovsky (1973).