Tchaikovsky: Letters to His Family (An Autobiography)

The great Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a compulsive letter writer. The 681 pieces contained in this volume offer unique and intimate insights into the composer's life. They range from two months before his 21st birthday in 1861 to six weeks before his death. In vivid, informative detail Tchaikovsky discusses both his own music and that of his contemporaries, as well as European literature, art, and, in a long missive, his reactions to the New World. The fascination and importance of these letters lie in the light that they throw on the social and political climate in which Tchaikovsky lived. He also has much to say about patriotism, censorship, the conditions of the peasantry, the place of the Orthodox Church, and attitudes toward foreign countries. This is the definitive work on Tchaikovsky—by Tchaikovsky.