In 1863 he entered the Conservatory, in St. Petersburg, studying there, and also undertaking private teaching. Three years later he moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at the new conservatory there. Although the conservative music establishment was not fond of his music, the public gave his First Symphony a good reception.
By 1874, Tchaikovsky had won acclaim with his Second Symphony, had composed two string quartets (the first the source of the famous Andante cantabile), most of his next opera, Vakula the Smith, and his First Piano Concerto. Tchaikovsky had originally intended for Nikolay Rubinstein, the head of Moscow Conservatory, who had encouraged him, but Rubinstein declared it to be unplayable. Tchaikovsky then dedicated to Hans von Bülow (who gave its premiere, in Boston).
Although Tchaikovsky composed many types of music, the piece that excites violinists is his Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky was very fond of former student Yosif Kotek, a violinist of considerable skill, and set out to write a concerto to showcase his skills.
Within eleven days of starting, Tchaikovsky had completely sketched out the work, but was displeased with the second movement. One day was all it took to replace that movement, then he set out to orchestrate the work. In all, the entire concerto was written over the course of just thirty days.
Now it came time to premiere the work, but he needed a violinist of substantial stature to debut it, and his friend did not yet have that reputation. So Tchaikovsky chose to dedicate the work to the renowned soloist Leopold Auer. Auer said that the piece was "unviolinistic." Other violinists also turned Tchaikovsky down before he finally persuaded Adolph Brodsky to premiere the work in Vienna in December 4, 1881.
By most accounts, Brodsky performed the piece well, but the critics were not kind. Eduard Hanslick, the most influential of Viennese critics, wrote:
"The Russian composer Tchaikovsky is surely not an ordinary talent, but rather an inflated one, with a genius-obsession without discrimination or taste. Such is also his latest, long and pretentious Violin Concerto. . . . (at) the end of the first movement. The violin is no longed played; it is beaten black and blue. The Adagio is again on its best behavior, to pacify and to win us. But it soon breaks off to make way for a finale that transfers us to a brutal and wretched jollity of a Russian holiday. We see plainly the savage vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell vodka... Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto gives us for the first time the hideous notion that there can be music that stinks to the ear." In time critics, the public and violinists themselves have come to love the piece. It is now a standard in most repertoires.
In 1893 Tchaikovsky wrote his Symphony no. 6 in B Minor, subsequently titled Pathétique by his brother Modeste. He conducted the piece in St. Petersburg on October 28, 1893. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died of cholera 9 days later, November 6, 1893. |
