Tchaikovsky : the quest for the inner man / Alexander Poznansky.
| Author/creator | Poznansky, Alexander |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Schirmer Books ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International, ©1991. |
| Description | xix, 679 pages : illustrations, map, portraits, plates, genealogical table ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Part one. Preparation (1840-1865). Early anguish -- In the school of jurisprudence -- Special friendships -- Man about town -- His brothers' keeper -- Part two. Creation (1866-1876). The lovable misanthrope -- Desires and flames -- The Petrolina letters -- Becoming the composer -- Tensions, temptations, melancholy -- Part three. Encounter with fate (1877-1878). Two women -- Marriage -- Escape abroad -- Consequences -- Part four. Double fugitive (1878-1879). Elective affinities -- Freedom to create -- Invisibility presumed -- Fireworks at Simaki -- Part five. Transient lodgings (1879-1888). Patrons, friends, and proteges -- Domestic upheaval -- Tanya -- X and Z at Kamenka -- Drama in Tiflis -- Gentlemanly games -- Part six. Fame (1888-1893). A second wind -- Mrs. Von Meck's last letter -- The "fourth suite" -- "Let them guess" -- The fortuitous tragedy -- Death in St. Petersburg. |
| Abstract | This monumental 656-page biography is probably the fullest, most revealing account to date of Tchaikovsky's private life. Poznansky identifies the death of the composer's mother as a shattering experience for young Pyotr Ilyich, a source of deep existential melancholy. His hypersensitivity, forged by a child's feeling of paradise lost, would manifest in neurosis, insomnia and depressive fits marked by "a sense of insurmountable terror." A Yale University librarian, Poznansky explores the composer's obsessive fear of death, his idealized relationship with eccentric, free-thinking patron Nadezhda von Meck, the fiasco of his brief, unconsummated marriage, and his involvement in a homosexual subculture that simultaneously fascinated and repelled him. Drawing on Russian sources, the author refutes the theory that Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 at age 53 was a suicide forced upon him by a conspiracy of former classmates. "The story of a soul finding itself," this remarkable book casts only an indirect light on the relationship between Tchaikovsky's life and art, as the author omits extended discussion of the music. |
| Local note | Little-289178--305130042197Z |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 91010095 |
| ISBN | 0028718852 : |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML410.C4 P85 1991 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |