Posted on 10/24/2007 2:55:24 PM PDT by Borges
And to top it off...he had so much more to give. He was murdered.
Believe it or not, Tchaikovsky was considered a homosexual and at that time of conservative Russian society, homosexual can be prosecuted.
Although his dead was left much speculations around, but one of the consipiracy theory suggested that Tchaikovsky was ordered to kill himself by none other than the Russian Tsar.
Looking back at the history, most of the famous composers died early such as Chopin, Mozart, Franz Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Mendelsson
Some heavy hitter politcos from the School of Jurisprudence where Tchaikovsky studied as a young man ordered him to kill himself or else they would reveal his sexuality to the Tzar. They thought they were ‘helping’ him preserve his reputation. Tchaikovsky should have told them to go to hell. The Tzar would have worked something out and not exile the most world famous Russian next to Tolstoy.
Cholera takes much longer to develop then it supposedly did in a week with the ‘drank unboiled water’ story that his brother Modest and his doctors fabricated. Since the fall of the Soviet Union more evidence surfaced.
That's what my Music History professor told us. Brahms wanted to preserve the classical music forms, particularly in symphonic music.
Brahms was a great admirer of Wagner, and one of his prized possessions was an autographed score of Wagner's Die Meistersinger. It was Bruckner that Brahms abhored.
I think Brahms perceived Bruckner's enthusiastic appreciation of Wagner as bordering on sycophantical. If I remember correctly, after one performance, Bruckner genuflected before Wagner.
I have it - excellent book! Another good book is "Charles Ives: "My Father`s Song": A Psychoanalytic Biography" by Stuart Feder.
I've always been a bit of a Charles Ives enthusiast. I've visited his home and family cemetery in Danbury CT. As for performances, I've preferred Michael Tilson Thomas, although I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
Ives disliked any music he percieved as ‘feminine’.
Very true. He liked to call people who liked that kind of music "Rollos". Not to turn this into a Charles Ives thread, but one of my favorite Ives quotes comes from a performance of his and Carl Ruggles' music. Several people booed Ives' composition, but when they did the same during the performance of his friend Ruggles, Ives turned around to the audience and shouted "Stop being such a God-damned sissy! Why can't you stand up before fine strong music like this and use your ears like a man?"
He was very insecure about his reputation as a ‘real man’. Serious music in America at the time was considered a women’s advocation. That’s why he didn’t want to be a full time composer.
One of my desert island recordings.
Because Ives viewed openly melodic, hummable music as not quite masculine, he always referred to Rachmaninoff as Rach-not-man-enough.
Conspiracy or not. Tchaikovsky’s death will remains a mystery. Assumed that evidence will resurface, there’re still some parties will argue the case.
Let see now, Cholera was once made London suffered under it’s wrath. I do hope that Moscow/St. Petersburg at that time got good sewer systems and clean water.
A side of Brahms not commonly seen...when he was told of the Little Big Horn Massacre he was gratified that the Indians were ‘finally able to bathe in the blood of their tormentors’.
Custer might have agreed. ;-)
Yeah, and they didn’t let him forget about that heritage, either. He never lost the North German accent, although the kiddies he gave candy to on his walks didn’t seem to mind it as much as their parents. It didn’t help that Wagner was so adopted by the Bavarians (Ludwig II especially).
From Jan Swafford's biography of Brahms:
The opening chorus's text from Revelation proclaims, "Hallelujah, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are His judgments." Brahms omitted the Scripture's indecorous following lines -- "For He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication." Privately, though, he copied the beginning of that verse into his own score, under an instrumental phrase that exactly represents it. He took great glee in pointing out the spot to friends.
Brahms was of two minds about the whole pan-German thing.
What’s wrong with Tchaikvosky’s Third Quartet? It’s so morose! Akin to his Piano Trio. Have you heard his String Sextet (Souvenir De Florence)? It’s wonderful.
The Piano Trio in A minor is a wonderful piece. But a few years ago, I had a chat with a cellist who appears regularly at our summer chamber music festival in Seattle. We were comparing it to the Shostakovich Piano Trio in E minor. He said, "After hearing the Shostakovitch, you want to go home and slit your wrists. After the Tchaikovsky, you want to go home, pour a stiff drink and forget about it." He had a point. Shostakovich cuts closer to the bone.
The String Quartet in E-flat minor was an ordeal to listen to. Morose or not, it doesn't compare to the first quartet in D Major, which is a classically composed gem. A composer with Brahms' critical sense would have suppressed that piece.
Add me on, I love classical music. I know that the discussion is on Tchaikovsky, but I would like to recommend Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart Piano Sonatas, a joy to listen to from begining to end. I also had the pleasure of seeing the New York Collegium in concert once, it was fantastic and moving./Just Asking - seoul62......
I’ve heard the Tchaikovsky sextet many times and the melodic freshness overcomes whatever structural problems it may have.
You have to be in the mood for the the Third Quartet but if the mood is right it can be quite moving. The trio is like that in that it can seem interminable if not performed properly.
Why is Brahms always regarded as a better composer than T? Both could do things the other couldn’t do.
Tchaikovsky was just about the only Russian composer of the 19th century who could write a convincing Sonata-Allegro movement.
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