Biography
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in the village of Votkinsk, located on the territory of modern Udmurtia. His father became Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, an engineer, originating from the Cossack Choj, known in Ukraine. The mother of the future famous composer became Alexander Andreevna Assier, who was trained in the School of Women's Orphans shortly before the death of his father. Alexandra Andreevna was trained in literature, geography, arithmetic, rhetoric and foreign languages.
In the Urals, the family was due to the fact that Ilya Petrovich was offered the position of head of the Kamsko-Votkinsky steel plant, which at the time was a very large enterprise. In Votkinsk, Tchaikovsky-Sr. received a big house with a servant and even his own army, which consisted of a hundred Cossacks. In this house, the nobles were often looked into this house, youth from the capital, English engineers and other honorable personalities.
In his family, Peter turned out to be a second child. He also had an elder brother Nicholas, the younger brother of Hippolit and the younger sister Alexander. In the Big House of Tchaikovsky, not only the family couple with their children lived, but also numerous relatives of Ilya Petrovich. To train children from St. Petersburg, the governess-French-fannaster Fanny Durbach was caused, which later became almost a member of the Tchaikovsky family.
Music has always been a welcome guest in the parent house of Peter Ilyich. His father knew how to play Flute, Mother - on piano and harp, and she also performed romances very skillfully. The governess of musical education was deprived, but also nourished a passion for music. In the House of Tchaikovsky there was an orchestrion (mechanical organ) and piano. The young musician took the lessons of the game on the piano in the fortress Marya Falchikova, who owned musical literacy.
Another passion of young Tchaikovsky, in addition to studying the basics of the game on the piano, poetry became. Peter with an applied composed in French numerous poems. In addition, he tried to learn everything that is only possible, from the biography of Louis XVII. The reverence of this historical person he carried through his whole life.
In 1848, Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow, since Ilya Petrovich retired and intended to find a private service. Just a couple of months, the family moved again, this time - to St. Petersburg. There, older sons were identified in a pension of shmelling.
In St. Petersburg, Peter Ilyich continued to study music, and also got acquainted with ballet, opera and symphony orchestra. In the same place, the young man had sledged, because of which he subsequently had seizures periodically.
In 1849, Nikolai Tchaikovsky, Senior Brother Peter, was determined to the Institute of Corps of Mining Engineers, and the rest of the children along with their parents returned to the Urals, to the city of Alapaevsk. There, the head of the family took the post of head of the plant of the heirs of Yakovlev. Fanny Durbach by that time left Tchaikovsky family, and another governess - Anastasia Petrova was hired to prepare a teen Peter Ilyich to receive further education.
In the same year, the young musician had two more younger brothers: Gemini Modest and Anatoly.
Education and state services
Although the young Peter Tchaikovsky has not yet demonstrated an increased interest in music, he was delighted with the famous opera and adored to go to the ballet, his parents did not consider music at all as a decent profession for his son. At first, he wanted to send him to the Institute of Corps of Mining Engineers, as well as the eldest son Nicholas, but then preferred to the Imperial School of Law, which was located in St. Petersburg. Peter Ilyich entered it in 1850.
In the school, the musician learned until 1859. The first years of study were for Tchaikovsky themselves difficult: he was hard to survive parting with relatives who could not often visit him. And the guardianship of the friend of fashion family Vakara was overshadowed by the fact that a ten-year Tchaikovsky had inadvertently brought Scarlatin into his house, because of what the Little Son of Modesty died suddenly.
In 1852, when Ilya Petrovich left the service, the whole family moved to St. Petersburg. During these years, Peter Ilyich actively acquainted with the Russian opera and ballet, and also made friends with a classmate, Poet Alexei Apukhtin, who had a great influence on his views and beliefs.
In 1854, Tchaikovsky's mother died after a long fight against cholera. Ilya Petrovich distributed older children to educational institutions of a closed type, and with four-year-old twins temporarily settled at his brother.
In the period from 1855 to 1858, Peter Ilyich took the lessons on the piano among the famous German pianist Rudolf Kündanger. His young Tchaikovsky hired his father, but in the spring of 1858 the lessons had to stop: due to the unsuccessful scam, Ilya Petrovich lost almost all his money, and there was nothing to pay a foreign musician. Fortunately, soon the Tchaikovsky-senior was offered to lead the leadership of the Institute of Technology and offered a large government apartment where he moved to children.
His school in the school of law, Peter Ilyich completed in 1859. Interestingly, he enjoyed great sympathy from both teachers and other students of the School. Unlike many other talented creative figures, which differed in dislike and weak socialization, Peter Tchaikovsky felt comfortably in society and fits perfectly into any company.
Upon completion of study, the young man got a job in the Ministry of Justice. There he was engaged, most often, conducting various peasants' affairs. In his free time, he continued to go to the opera theater and engage in music. In 1861, Peter Ilyich visited the border, visiting Hamburg, Berlin, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Ostend and even London. By that time, he perfectly owned Italian and French, and therefore was able to accompany the engineer Pisareva V.V. (friend of his father) as a translator.
Creation
No matter how surprisingly, even at the 21st age, Peter Ilyich, who was educated and who took the public service, did not even think about the musical career. He, like once parents, did not perceive seriously. But, fortunately, the father of the future composer Ilya Petrovich still felt that his son was destined to become a great musician.
Tchaikovsky-Sr. even went to Rudolf Kündanger to find out his opinion on the talent of her son. The German pianist categorically stated that there is no special musical abilities with Tchaikovsky-younger, and and 21 years old - not the age to start a creative career. And Peter Ilyich himself propose a father's proposal to combine work with the receipt of musical education at first perceived as a joke.
But when he learned that a new conservatory was opened in St. Petersburg, which will lead the famous Anton Rubinstein, all the radically changed. Tchaikovsky decided by all means to go to the St. Petersburg conservatory, which he did, becoming one of the first students of this educational institution in the class of composition. And soon after that, he also threw the jurisprudence, deciding, despite the problems with money, to completely devote himself to music.
As his diploman, Peter Ilyich wrote Cantatoo "to joy." It was created to the Russian-speaking translation of Odi Friedrich Schiller with the same title. The musicians of St. Petersburg Cantata made a bad impression. The critic Caesar Kui was particularly sharply expressed, saying that he was extremely weak as composer Tchaikovsky, as well as accusing him to conservatism. And this despite the fact that for Peter Ilyich's music was freedom, and his idols were Borodin, Mussorgsky, Balakirev - composers who did not admit authorities and rules.
But such a reaction did not bother the young composer at all. Having received his deserved silver medal about the successful completion of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, who was then the highest award, he was still a big zeal and Azart at work. In 1866, the composer moved to Moscow at the invitation of his mentor's brother. Nikolay Rubinstein offered him the work of Professor at the Moscow Conservatory.
Career flourishing
In the Moscow conservatory, Tchaikovsky showed himself as an excellent teacher. In addition, he applied a lot of effort to the qualitative organization of the educational process. Since worthy textbooks for his students at that time existed a bit, the composer was engaged in translations of foreign literature and even the creation of its own methodical materials.
However, in 1878 Peter Ilyich, tired of breaking between teaching and his own creativity, left his position. His place was taken by Sergey Taneyev, who became the most favorite student of Tchaikovsky. Make ends with the ends of Tchaikovsky helped the rich patronage Hope von Mecc. Being secured by the widow, she guarded the composer and annually gave him subsidies in the amount of 6000 rubles.
It was after moving to Moscow that the real rise of the creative career of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky began to Moscow and there was a significant increase in him as a composer. At this time, he met composers participating in the creative Commonwealth "Mighty Hand". According to the advice of the Milia Balakirev, the head of the Commonwealth, Tchaikovsky in 1869 created a fantasy overture based on the work of Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet".
In 1873, Peter Ilyich wrote another his famous work - the symphonic fantasy of the "storm", the idea for which he suggested by the authoritative musical critic Vladimir Stasov in those days. At about the same time, Tchaikovsky began to travel again, gaining inspiration abroad and using images captured in memory to form the base of their next creations.
In the 1870s, the composer wrote such works as the ballet "Swan Lake", Opera "Okrichnik", a concert for piano with the orchestra, the second and third symphony, the fantasy "Francesca da Rimini", Opera "Eugene Onegin", the piano cycle "Times years "and many others. In the 1880-1890s, Peter Tchaikovsky even more often than before, went abroad, and in the overwhelming majority of cases - as part of concert trips.
During such trips, the musician met and made friends with many musicians from Western Europe: Gustav Maller, Artur Nikishe, Edward Grieg, Antonin Noborik and others. The composer himself was played as a conductor during concerts. At the beginning of the 1890s, Tchaikovsky even managed to visit the United States. There was a stunning success during the concert, where Peter Ilyich conducted his own works. Written at the time of creative maturity, they have no other doubts in the talent of the composer.
Last years, before his death, Tchaikovsky held in the vicinity of the town of Wedge near Moscow. In the same place, he agreed to open school, displeasing the quality of life of local peasants, and sacrificed money for her content. In 1885, he helped the wedges to fight fire, because of which several dozen houses burned in the city.
During this period of his life, the composer wrote a ballet "Nutcracker", Opera "Peak Lady", "Hamlet" Overture, Iolanta Opera, fifth symphony. At the same time, the international recognition of the talent of Peter Ilyich was confirmed: in 1892 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, and in 1893 - Honorary Dr. University in Cambridge.
Tchaikovsky died on November 6, 1893 from cholera. He was fang in the Kazan Cathedral, and buried in the necropolis of art masters.
Personal life
A lot of photos remained, where Peter Tchaikovsky is captured in moreover, with his men's friends. Orientation of the composer in his life became the subject for the Obiden: Some accused the musician that he was a homosexual. It was assumed that his men (the men to whom he experienced Platonic attachment) is Joseph Kick, Vladimir Davydov and even the brothers Alexey and Mikhail Safronov.
It is difficult to judge whether there are additional evidence that the composer loved men. His relationships with the above-mentioned personalities could well be simply friendly. Be that as it may, women in the fate of Tchaikovsky were also, although some researchers argue that so the composer tried to hide that he was gay.
So, the young French Primaudonna Arto Desire became the farewell wife of Peter Ilyich, who chose the Spaniard of Marian Padilla. And in 1877, His official wife became Antonina Milyukova, who was the younger of the newly-made spouse for eight years. However, this marriage lasted only a few weeks, although officially Antonina and Peter did not divorce.
It is worth recalling his connection with the hope of the background of Mecca, which bowed to the talent of the composer and for many years supported him materially.