List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on transliteration, names spellings, and dates
Abbreviations
Introduction
I. The Schoolboy (1840-1863)
Fanny Dürbach, Fyodor Maslov, Ivan Turchaninov, Alexander
Mikhailov, Vladimir Gerard, Rudolph Kündinger, Ippolit Tchaikovsky,
Arkady Raich, Modest Tchaikovsky
II. The Music Student (1863-1865)
Modest Tchaikovsky, Vasily Bessel, Herman Laroche, Ivan Klimenko,
Adelaida Spasskaya, Alexander Rubets
III. The Conservatory Professor (1866-1876)
Rostislav Genika, Mariya Gurye, Alexandra Amfiteatrova-Levitskaya,
Samuil Litvinov, V. A., Ivan Klimenko
IV. The Socialite (1866-1876)
Modest Tchaikovsky, Konstantin de Lazari, Alexandra Sokolova
V. Marriage (1877)
Antonina Tchaikovsky, Nikolay Kashkin
VI. The Composer (1878-1892)
Alexander Glazunov, Eduard Nápravník, Vladimir Pogozhev, Romain
Rolland, Herman Klein, Julius Block, Varvara Tsekhovskaya
VII. The Man (1878-1892)
Konstantin de Lazari, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Boris
Vietinghoff-Schell, Vasily Korganov, Vasily Bertenson, Konstantin
Varlamov, Nazar Litrov
VIII. The Celebrity (1891-1892)
Musical Courier, New York Herald, News of the Day, Petersburg Life,
Petersburg Gazette
IX. The National Treasure (1893)
Leonid Sabaneyev, Mikhail Bukinik, Anton Door, Abram Kaufman,
Konstantin Dumchev, Isaak Bukinik, Yulian Poplavsky, Ivan Klimenko,
Vasily Sapelnikov
X. Death (1893)
Modest Tchaikovsky, Vladimir Nápravník, Yury Davydov, Vasily
Bertenson, Lev Bertenson, Nikolay Mamonov, Grand Duke Konstantin
Konstantinovich, Yulian Poplavsky
Photos and writings on PIT—some newly discovered in Russian archives.
Photos and writings on PITNsome newly discovered in Russian archives.
Alexander Poznansky's many publications on Tchaikovsky include Tchaikovsky's Last Days: A Documentary Study and Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man.
This is Poznansky's third book on Tchaikovsky in one decade
and—like its two well-received predecessors, Tchaikovsky: The Quest
for the Inner Man (CH, Jun'92) and Tchaikovsky's Last Days (CH,
Apr'97)—it deals not at all with the music but with the man and his
milieu. Poznansky (Yale) divides the book into ten essentially
chronological chapters, ranging from descriptions of the composer
as a schoolboy to reactions to his untimely death. At the heart of
each chapter are contemporaneous comments and journalistic
writings; each chapter begins with an essay by Poznansky, in which
he sets the scene for the era and describes the
reliability—sometimes nonreliability—of those making the comments.
Given the chronological order of presentation, the essays
constitute a selective biography of the composer. This book serves
as a companion to Alexandra Orlova's somewhat flawed compilation of
writings by the composer himself (Tchaikovsky: A Self-Portrait,
comp. by Alexandra Orlova, CH, Jun'91). Poznansky's project also
benefits from the assistance of two experienced translators.
Materials concerning Tchaikovsky have been subject to longstanding
suppression, and documentation remains to published, especially in
translation. Copious endnotes and a reliable index complete the
volume, which this reviewer recommends to anyone interested in this
composer.November 1999
*Ripon College*
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