Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( / tʃ aɪ ˈ k ɒ f s k i / chy- KOF -skee ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer from the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music had a lasting influence around the world. Tchaikovsky created some of the most well-known pieces in classical music, including the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, the opera Eugene Onegin, and the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
Although Tchaikovsky showed musical talent early in life, he was trained to work as a government official because there were few opportunities for musicians in Russia at that time. When a chance to study music appeared, he joined the newly established Saint Petersburg Conservatory and graduated in 1865. The Western-style music education he received there made him different from other Russian composers of the time, such as those in a group called "The Five." His professional relationships with these composers were sometimes difficult.
Tchaikovsky’s training helped him combine the Western techniques he learned with the traditional Russian music he had known since childhood. This mix helped him create a unique style that was clearly Russian. However, Russian music had different rules for melody and harmony compared to Western European music. This made it hard to blend the two styles, which sometimes made Tchaikovsky feel unsure of his work. Russian culture had a mix of traditions, some old and some borrowed from other countries, which caused confusion about the country’s identity. This uncertainty also affected Tchaikovsky’s career.
Even though Tchaikovsky’s music was widely loved, his life was marked by personal struggles and sadness. These included being separated from his mother as a child, her early death, the death of a close friend, Nikolai Rubinstein, his troubled marriage to Antonina Miliukova, and the end of his long relationship with a wealthy supporter, Nadezhda von Meck. His private life, including his homosexuality, was a source of stress. Some people believe his relationship with his nephew, Vladimir Davydov, was romantic, based on letters he wrote. Tchaikovsky died suddenly at 53, and his death was usually thought to be from cholera, though some people still debate the cause.
Tchaikovsky’s music has always been popular with audiences, but early critics had mixed opinions. Some Russians felt his music did not fully reflect traditional Russian sounds and thought Europeans liked it only for its Western elements. Others praised Tchaikovsky for creating meaningful music that went beyond stereotypes. Some critics, however, said his work was not strict enough in following Western musical rules.
Early life and education
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, a small town in what is now Udmurtia, near the Kama River. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, was a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and managed an ironworks in Kamsko-Votkinsk. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire, which is now Mykolaivka, Ukraine. He first worked as a physician's assistant in the army and later became the city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather, Fyodor Chaika, was a Zaporozhian Cossack who fought in the Russian military during the Battle of Poltava in 1709.
Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d'Assier), was the second wife of Ilya. His first wife had died before Pyotr was born. Alexandra was 18 years younger than Ilya and had French and German ancestry on her father’s side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music. Among his six siblings, Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra later married Lev Davydov, and their seven children provided Tchaikovsky with a family life during his adult years. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov (known as "Bob"), became a close friend to Tchaikovsky.
In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. At age four-and-a-half, Tchaikovsky was considered too young to study with his older brother Nikolai and a family niece. However, his persistence convinced Dürbach to let him join. By age six, he was fluent in French and German. Tchaikovsky also formed a close bond with Dürbach, whose affection helped him cope with his mother’s emotional distance. Dürbach preserved many of his early compositions and shared stories about his childhood.
Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five with Maria Palchikova. Within three years, he could read sheet music as well as his teacher. His parents supported his musical interests by hiring a tutor, buying an orchestrion (a type of barrel organ that mimics orchestral sounds), and encouraging his piano studies. However, in 1850, they sent him to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They believed this education would prepare him for a career as a civil servant. At that time, musical careers in Russia were limited to teaching in academies or playing in Imperial Theaters, both considered low-status jobs with few rights.
Tchaikovsky’s father’s income was becoming unstable, so his parents may have wanted him to become independent quickly. Since the school’s minimum age was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10, he spent two years at the school’s preparatory program, 1,300 kilometers from home. After completing that, he joined the Imperial School of Jurisprudence for a seven-year course.
Tchaikovsky’s separation from his mother, despite their reportedly distant relationship, caused lasting emotional pain. This pain worsened when his mother died of cholera in 1854, when he was 14. Her death inspired him to write his first serious composition, a waltz in her memory. His father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered, sent him back to school immediately. While isolated, Tchaikovsky formed lifelong friendships with classmates like Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard.
Although music was not a main focus at school, it helped Tchaikovsky connect with peers. They often attended the opera, and he played the school’s harmonium with themes from choir practice. Gerard later recalled that they found his performances amusing but did not foresee his future success. Tchaikovsky continued piano lessons with Franz Becker, an instrument maker who occasionally visited the school. However, his progress was limited, according to music historian David Brown.
In 1855, Tchaikovsky’s father paid for private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger, who was asked about a possible musical career for his son. While impressed by Tchaikovsky’s talent, Kündinger believed there was no sign he would become a composer or performer. He later admitted his opinion was influenced by his own difficult experiences as a musician in Russia. Tchaikovsky was advised to finish his studies and then seek a position in the Ministry of Justice.
Career
On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low position in the government. He was appointed to the Ministry of Justice and became a junior assistant within six months. He became a senior assistant two months later and remained in that role for the rest of his three-year government job.
At the same time, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was created in 1859 by Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II, and her student, the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Earlier tsars and aristocrats had focused mostly on bringing European musicians to Russia. The RMS aimed to support Russian musicians, as Tsar Alexander II wanted to help local talent grow. It held public concerts regularly and offered basic music training. In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended music theory classes at the Mikhailovsky Palace, taught by Nikolai Zaremba. These classes were a step toward the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky joined the Conservatory’s first class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein. He received a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata based on Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.”
The Conservatory helped Tchaikovsky in two ways. It trained him as a professional musician, giving him tools to succeed as a composer. It also exposed him to European musical ideas, helping him see his art as a mix of Russian and Western influences. He believed these two styles were connected and depended on each other. This idea influenced how he combined Russian and Western elements in his music.
Rubinstein praised Tchaikovsky’s talent and called him “a composer of genius” in his autobiography. However, he was less happy with some of Tchaikovsky’s student work. Rubinstein and Zaremba disagreed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony to the Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. They refused to perform it unless he made major changes. Tchaikovsky followed their request, but they still refused to perform the symphony. Feeling treated like a student, Tchaikovsky withdrew the piece. It was first performed in Moscow in February 1868 without the changes.
After graduating in 1865, Rubinstein’s brother, Nikolai, offered Tchaikovsky a job as a professor of music theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory. The salary was only 50 rubles a month, but the offer lifted Tchaikovsky’s spirits, and he accepted. He was also encouraged by the first public performance of his work, Characteristic Dances, conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865. Tchaikovsky later included a version of this piece, called Dances of the Hay Maidens, in his opera The Voyevoda.
From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky taught music while also writing reviews of contemporary music and traveling abroad. In his reviews, he praised Ludwig van Beethoven, thought Johannes Brahms was overrated, and criticized Robert Schumann for poor orchestration. He appreciated the staging of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at its first performance in Bayreuth, Germany, but disliked the music, calling Das Rheingold “unlikely nonsense” with some beautiful details. He often wrote about the poor state of Russian opera.
In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still studying law and Rubinstein worked to form the Russian Musical Society, the critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev, met and agreed on a plan for Russian music. They wanted to model their work on the operas of Mikhail Glinka, use folk music, and avoid Western musical traditions. They also used non-Western scales like the whole tone and octatonic scales. They believed Western-style conservatories were not helpful for developing Russian talent.
Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin became known as the moguchaya kuchka, or the “Mighty Handful.” Rubinstein criticized their focus on amateur music, while Balakirev and Mussorgsky criticized Rubinstein for being too traditional and favoring professional training. Tchaikovsky and his Conservatory classmates were caught between these groups.
Although he was unsure about much of the Mighty Handful’s music, Tchaikovsky stayed friendly with most of them. In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky’s first major work. The group supported his Second Symphony, later called the Little Russian. Despite their support, Tchaikovsky worked to stay independent from both the Mighty Handful and the conservative group at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
Tchaikovsky’s successes came slowly and required hard work, which made him sensitive to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein’s harsh critiques, such as his criticism of the First Piano Concerto, made things harder. However, his popularity grew as top performers began to play his music. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and promoted other works by Tchaikovsky as a pianist and conductor. Other musicians who performed his music included Adele aus der Ohe, Max Erdmannsdörfer, Eduard Nápravník, and Sergei Taneyev.
A change in Russian audiences also helped Tchaikovsky’s music gain popularity. Previously, they preferred flashy, technically difficult pieces with little musical depth. Over time, they began to appreciate the music itself more. Tchaikovsky’s works were performed often, with little delay between their creation and first performances. Publishing his songs and piano music for home audiences from 1867 onward also helped increase his fame.
In the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky started writing operas. His first, The Voyevoda, based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, premiered in 1869. He later disliked it and reused parts of it in other works before destroying the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870, but only parts were performed, and it was also destroyed. Between these projects, he began writing Mandragora, with a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii. He only completed a short chorus called Flowers and Insects.
The first of Tchaikovsky’s operas to survive intact, The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. During its creation, he lost the unfinished libretto by Ostrovsky and wrote the libretto himself, copying the dramatic style of Eugène Scribe. Cui wrote a harsh review of the opera. Mussorgsky, in a letter to Vladimir Stasov, criticized the work as well.
Personal life
Discussion of Tchaikovsky’s personal life, especially his sexuality, has been among the most detailed of any 19th-century composer and certainly of any Russian composer of his time. This topic has also caused confusion, from Soviet attempts to remove all references to homosexuality and present him as heterosexual, to analyses by Western biographers.
Biographers generally agree that Tchaikovsky was homosexual. He spent long periods with other men in his social circle, "interacting openly and forming professional relationships with them." His first love was reportedly Sergey Kireyev, a younger student at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. According to his brother Modest Tchaikovsky, this was Pyotr Ilyich’s "strongest, longest, and purest love." Tchaikovsky’s dedication of his Sixth Symphony to his nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov (21 at the time) and his expressions of feelings about Davydov in letters to others have been used as evidence of romantic love between them. However, the extent to which Tchaikovsky felt comfortable with his sexual desires remains debated. It is still unclear whether, as musicologist and biographer David Brown suggested, he "felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape," or whether, as Alexander Poznansky wrote, he "experienced no unbearable guilt" over his desires and "eventually saw his sexual preferences as a natural part of his personality without serious harm."
Parts of Modest Tchaikovsky’s autobiography, which describe the composer’s same-sex attraction, have been published. Letters that were hidden by Soviet censors, in which Tchaikovsky openly wrote about his sexuality, have also been released. Censorship of this nature continues in Russia, leading some officials, including former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, to deny Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality. In one censored letter, Tchaikovsky wrote about a homosexual acquaintance: "Petashenka used to visit with the goal of watching the Cadet Corps, which is across from our windows, but I have tried to stop these visits—and with some success." In another, he wrote: "After our walk, I offered him money, which was refused. He does it for the love of art and adores men with beards."
Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor most of his life. In 1868, he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt and considered marriage, but the relationship ended due to various reasons. Later, he claimed she was the only woman he ever loved. In 1877, at age 37, he married a former student, Antonina Miliukova. The marriage was difficult, as the couple had different needs and personalities. They lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwhelmed emotionally and suffering from severe difficulty writing. Tchaikovsky’s family supported him during this time and throughout his life. His failed marriage may have forced him to confront the truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the marriage’s failure.
Tchaikovsky was also helped by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate, who contacted him shortly before his marriage. She became a close friend and provided financial support for 13 years, allowing him to focus on composing. Though Tchaikovsky called her his "best friend," they agreed never to meet in person.
Death
On October 16, 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, called the Pathétique, in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, on November 6, Tchaikovsky died there at the age of 53. He was buried in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of other composers, including Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky. Later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev were also buried in the same area.
Tchaikovsky’s death was believed to be caused by cholera, which he may have contracted by drinking water that was not boiled at a local restaurant. However, in the 1980s, some scholars in Britain suggested that he might have intentionally caused his own death, either by poisoning himself or by deliberately infecting himself with cholera. In the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Roland John Wiley wrote: "The arguments about how Tchaikovsky died have not reached a clear answer. Evidence about his illness is unclear, and witness accounts are confusing. Doctors may not have fully understood his condition, and the long-term effects of smoking and drinking were not considered. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out."
Music
Tchaikovsky was influenced by several composers before him. Robert Schumann, according to Brown and Roland John Wiley, affected Tchaikovsky’s use of musical structure, harmony, and piano writing. Boris Asafyev noted that Schumann also inspired Tchaikovsky’s approach to storytelling through music and expressing personal emotions. Leon Botstein said that Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also influenced Tchaikovsky’s orchestral style. The trend of writing orchestral suites, which began with composers like Franz Lachner, Jules Massenet, and Joachim Raff after rediscovering Johann Sebastian Bach’s works, may have inspired Tchaikovsky to try writing his own.
Tchaikovsky’s teacher, Anton Rubinstein, wrote an opera called The Demon, which inspired the final scene of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Similarly, Léo Delibes’ ballets Coppélia and Sylvia influenced Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, and Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (which Tchaikovsky greatly admired) inspired his The Queen of Spades. Tchaikovsky also looked to past composers for inspiration, including Beethoven, whose music he respected; Mozart, his favorite composer; Glinka, whose opera A Life for the Tsar deeply impressed him as a child; and Adolphe Adam, whose ballet Giselle he loved and studied while working on The Sleeping Beauty. Beethoven’s symphonies and string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky’s own works in those styles. Other composers Tchaikovsky admired included Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, Carl Maria von Weber, and Henry Litolff.
Tchaikovsky’s music showed a wide range of styles and emotions, from light, simple pieces to grand symphonies. For example, his Variations on a Rococo Theme used a musical form similar to that of 18th-century composers like Mozart. Other works, such as his Little Russian Symphony and opera Vakula the Smith, used musical techniques similar to those of the Five, a group of Russian composers, especially in their use of folk songs. His last three symphonies, however, used a unique personal style that allowed for strong emotional expression.
Harold C. Schonberg, an American music critic, described Tchaikovsky’s ability to create beautiful, endless melodies that have kept his music popular. Tchaikovsky used many different types of melodies, including Western-style melodies, original melodies inspired by Russian folk songs, and even actual folk songs. According to The New Grove, Tchaikovsky’s talent for melody could also be a challenge in two ways.
First, Tchaikovsky’s Russian heritage made it harder for him to use Western musical techniques. Russian music often used short, repeating melodies, while Western music focused on developing melodies over time. This made it difficult for Tchaikovsky to shift between different musical keys to introduce new themes, a common practice in Western music.
Second, Romantic-era composers like Tchaikovsky often used complete, independent melodies rather than the shorter, symmetrical shapes favored by Classical composers like Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. These full melodies were harder to combine in sonata form, a structure used in symphonies and other large works. This made it difficult for Romantic composers to create the smooth, progressive musical development seen in Classical works.
Harmony, or the way notes are combined, could also be a challenge for Tchaikovsky. Russian music often focused on static, self-contained musical images, while Western harmony used changes in musical keys to move the music forward. Modulation, or shifting between keys, was a key part of Western harmony and sonata form, helping to create contrast and development in music.
One advantage Tchaikovsky had was his natural talent for harmony, which impressed his tutor Rudolph Kündinger. This skill, combined with what he learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, allowed Tchaikovsky to use a wide range of harmonic styles, from Western techniques in his early string quartets to the use of the whole-tone scale in his Second Symphony, a style more common among the Five.
In terms of rhythm, Tchaikovsky sometimes used unusual meters, but he often used regular, steady rhythms that worked well in dance music. At times, his rhythms became the main way he expressed emotion in his music. These rhythms also helped simulate movement in large symphonic works, a technique described by Brown as "synthetic propulsion." This method replaced the natural momentum created in Classical sonata form by the interaction of musical themes, which was less common in Russian music.
Tchaikovsky struggled with sonata form, a structure that relies on the development of musical themes through interaction. This approach was unfamiliar in Russian music, where themes were often static. Some critics argue that Tchaikovsky’s inability to develop themes in this way was a weakness, but others suggest he used development passages in his works to build tension rather than create smooth, progressive music.
According to Brown, Hans Keller, and Daniel Zhitomirsky, Tchaikovsky found a solution to large-scale musical structure while composing his Fourth Symphony. Instead of focusing on the interaction of themes, he used sonata form as a basic outline, placing contrasting musical sections next to each other. This created dramatic contrasts in tone, theme, and harmony, building momentum and intensity. While some critics, like John Warrack, argue that this approach was more episodic than symphonic, Brown notes that it created a new kind of musical experience for listeners of the time, one based on accumulation rather than the summation seen in Austro-German symphonies.
Because of the complexity of his musical ideas and his personal style, Tchaikovsky’s music became deeply expressive. This emotional intensity was new to Russian music and led some to compare him to the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. The German musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar praised Tchaikovsky’s later symphonies for offering "full images of life, developed freely, sometimes even dram…"
Reception
Tchaikovsky had different experiences working with other musicians. For example, Leopold Auer, a skilled violinist and teacher, first refused to perform Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto but later changed his mind. He performed it successfully and taught it to his students, including famous musicians like Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein. Another musician, Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, made many changes to Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme," according to music critic Michael Steinberg. Tchaikovsky was upset by these changes but did not stop Fitzenhagen. The final version of the piece included Fitzenhagen's changes.
Working on ballets was more successful for Tchaikovsky, especially with Marius Petipa, who helped with two of the ballets. Petipa encouraged dancers to work harder when they found Tchaikovsky's music for The Sleeping Beauty too complex. Tchaikovsky made adjustments to his music to help the dancers, and in return, he was given more creative freedom than most ballet composers at the time. His ballet scores had simpler rhythms than usual but still included imaginative melodies and orchestration.
People's opinions about Tchaikovsky's music changed over time. Some in Russia thought his music was not national enough, while Western critics believed it was praised for this reason. Musicologist Leon Botstein suggested there might be some truth to this, as German critics described Tchaikovsky's music as being "at home in the non-Russian."
Some critics strongly disliked Tchaikovsky's work. Eduard Hanslick called the Violin Concerto "a musical composition whose stink one can hear," and William Forster Abtrop described the Fifth Symphony as "a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker."
Russian and Western critics continued to disagree about Tchaikovsky's music throughout the 20th century, but for different reasons. Western critics often thought the qualities that made Tchaikovsky's music popular—its strong emotions, directness, and colorful orchestration—actually showed a lack of depth. The use of his music in movies and popular songs further lowered its reputation in some eyes. Tchaikovsky's music required listeners to engage actively, which some critics found unsettling. They felt his music's emotional intensity "attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation."
Tchaikovsky did not always follow the traditional sonata form, instead using blocks of tonalities and themes. Some critics, like Maes, saw this as a weakness rather than an original idea. Even after a professional reevaluation of his work, some critics still criticized him for not following the style of the Viennese masters. In 1992, critic Allan Kozinn wrote that Tchaikovsky's music, while popular, could sometimes seem "superficial, manipulative, and trivial" when compared to other works. He used the First Piano Concerto as an example, calling it "entirely hollow" despite its "joyful noise" and "pretty tunes."
In the 21st century, critics have become more positive about Tchaikovsky's music, recognizing its tunefulness, originality, and skill. Cultural historian Joseph Horowitz said Tchaikovsky is now seen as a composer of great depth and influence. This change in attitude includes a new appreciation for the emotional intensity of Romantic music. Horowitz noted that Tchaikovsky's music is now admired for its emotional honesty, even if it sometimes feels "harried and insecure."
Horowitz also said that while critics' opinions of Tchaikovsky's music have changed, the public has always loved his work. His most famous pieces, like the love theme from Romeo and Juliet, have become iconic. Botstein added that Tchaikovsky's music connected with audiences worldwide because of its directness and emotional power. His melodies, combined with creative use of harmony and orchestration, ensured his lasting popularity. Today, Tchaikovsky is one of the most widely loved composers, with a following in many countries second only to Beethoven. His music is also often used in popular songs and films.
Legacy
According to Wiley, Tchaikovsky was a pioneer in several ways. "Thanks in large part to Nadezhda von Meck," Wiley writes, "he became the first full-time professional Russian composer." This, Wiley adds, allowed him the time and freedom to combine the Western musical techniques he learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Russian folk songs and other traditional musical elements to express his own ideas and create a unique, personal style. He made an impact not only in complete works like symphonies but also in program music, as Wiley explains, by using the ideas of composers like Liszt and Berlioz to create music with deep emotional and dramatic meaning, similar to Shakespeare's works. Wiley and Holden both note that Tchaikovsky did all this without a group of Russian composers before him to follow. They explain that only one composer, Glinka, had previously combined Russian and Western styles, and Tchaikovsky's teachers in Saint Petersburg had been strongly influenced by German music. For all practical purposes, Tchaikovsky was alone in his artistic journey.
Maes and Taruskin write that Tchaikovsky believed his skill and high standards in his music set him apart from his contemporaries in The Five. Maes adds that, like them, he wanted to create music that showed Russian identity but met the highest European standards of quality. Tchaikovsky, according to Maes, lived during a time when Russia itself was unsure of what its national character truly was. Like his country, Maes writes, Tchaikovsky needed time to find a way to express his Russian identity that was true to himself and his learning. Because of his professionalism, Maes says, he worked hard at this goal and succeeded. His friend, the music critic Herman Laroche, wrote about The Sleeping Beauty that the score contained "a deeper and more general quality than just color, especially in the music's structure and melody. This basic element is undoubtedly Russian."
Tchaikovsky was inspired to share his music beyond Russia, according to Maes and Taruskin. His experience with Western music, they write, made him believe it belonged not only to Russia but also to the world. Solomon Volkov adds that this mindset made him think seriously about Russia's role in European music—the first Russian composer to do so. Warrack writes that this encouraged him to become the first Russian composer to introduce foreign audiences personally to his own works and those of other Russian composers. In his biography of Tchaikovsky, Anthony Holden recalls the lack of Russian classical music before Tchaikovsky was born, then places the composer's achievements in historical context: "Twenty years after Tchaikovsky's death, in 1913, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring appeared, showing Russia's arrival in 20th-century music. Between these two very different styles, Tchaikovsky's music became the only bridge."
Voice recording
A recording was made in Moscow in January 1890 by Julius Block on behalf of Thomas Edison. A written version of the recording is provided below (the identities of the people speaking are not certain):
According to musicologist Leonid Sabaneyev, Tchaikovsky felt uneasy about being recorded for future generations and avoided the idea. During a separate visit, Block asked Tchaikovsky to play music on the piano or at least speak. Tchaikovsky refused, saying, "I am a poor pianist, and my voice is hoarse. Why should this be remembered forever?"