Even people who are not fans of classical music have heard about Pyotr Tchaikovsky. This talented composer felt music like no other. His works are performed all over the world to this day, and there is not a single more or less decent conservatory in the world where the music created by him has not sounded at least once.
Prior to studying at the conservatory, young Tchaikovsky worked for several years at the Ministry of Justice. It is likely that his parents instilled a love for music in the future composer – his mother loved to sing and play the piano, and his father was just a big fan of music. He even purchased a mechanical organ. For the first time young Peter showed an interest in music at 4 years of age. The great composer was ashamed of his voice, claiming that he was “raspy and unpleasant”.
The most famous work of Tchaikovsky can be called “Swan Lake”. However, the public did not immediately appreciate it because of the complexity of the musical pattern. And the musicians did not like this work because of the complexity of its performance. Tchaikovsky himself called himself a “bad pianist”. In 1885, terrible fires raged in Klin near Moscow. Tchaikovsky, who by that time settled in these parts, took part in the fight against fire along with many local residents.
The marriage of Pyotr Tchaikovsky with Antonina Milyukova, a student at his conservatory, lasted only a few weeks. Lev Tolstoy once burst into tears while listening to Tchaikovsky’s music at the conservatory. The composer witnessed this scene, and he called her the greatest recognition of his talent. In his youth, Tchaikovsky stole a book from a Venetian library. The composer destroyed two of the ten operas he had created. From one of them, “Ondine”, nothing survived, and from the second, “Governor”, only a small fragment survived. The famous writer Anton Chekhov dedicated to Tchaikovsky a collection of stories “Gloomy People”. In 1891, Tchaikovsky took part in the opening of one of the most famous concert halls in the USA – Carnegie Hall. For several years, Tchaikovsky, hiding his authorship and using a pseudonym, worked as a music columnist in several Russian newspapers. Tchaikovsky asserted that he dislikes and does not respect those of his countrymen who are alien to the love of their common homeland.
