630. Tchaikovsky: LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall

23:49So there's a musical prodigy called Vladimir Shilovsky, who's 14. Then there's a 15-year-old, a music student called Eduard Zak. And Tchaikovsky had a real passion for him. And Zak actually ended up taking his own life a few years later. And a lot of this story is very murky because it was effectively erased by Soviet censors. So it's very hard to say what exactly happened between them. But what we do know is that Tchaikovsky was absolutely devastated afterwards. And one of his biographers says, you sense the presence of a complex and intense psychodrama that is almost entirely hidden from view.

24:29And hidden from view presumably because Tchaikovsky himself is trying to bury it. So there's doubly a kind of darkness, a darkness that Tchaikovsky wants to bury the memory of this in, but also a kind of personal darkness that Tchaikovsky is feeling, kind of element of self-hatred perhaps, almost depression. I think that's fair to say. I mean, after Zack's death, he goes into this deep, deep depression, and then as so often, he emerges with a great burst of energy. So it's 1875, he comes out of this depression, and he's commissioned to write a ballet, and that became the piece we heard at the beginning, Swan Lake, one of the most beloved pieces in the whole canon.

25:06And then a year after that, he falls in love again with a violinist called Josef Kotek, who was then 21. When, for hours on end, I hold his hand in my own, passion rages within me with unimaginable force. My voice shakes like that of a youth, and I speak a load of nonsense. And Dominic, that is Tchaikovsky, not you. That's not me talking about Theo, Tom. That's Tchaikovsky talking about this bloke Kotek. So this is a letter that he writes to his brother Modeste, his younger brother Modeste, who is also gay. And they would talk quite openly about all of this, which leads me to think that Tchaikovsky is probably not quite as tortured and as repressed as we often assume.

25:51I suppose another issue is, I mean, honestly, I mean, who ultimately cares? Does this matter? Of course, in the immediate aftermath of Tchaikovsky's death, there are lots of people who feel it does matter. So Tchaikovsky dies and Tolstoy, who by this point is about 810, he writes, there is always something not quite clear about him more as a man than as a musician, which I'm guessing is a reference to his sexuality. And certainly in the decades that follow Tchaikovsky's death, there are critics who condemn his music as neurotic and effeminate. And presumably they are saying that because they're not really talking about his music at all.

26:30They're talking about his posthumous reputation. Right, but I think with all of this stuff, it's important not to sort of blow it out of proportion. So there's a great music critic of the 20th century called Richard Taruskin, and he wrote a brilliant, brilliant essay on all this, which actually Oliver, our conductor, put me onto. And Taruskin said, look, we should stop seeing Tchaikovsky as this angst-ridden, guilt-ridden kind of neurotic artist. By and large, this is somebody who is very successful, who has loads of fun, actually loads of money, and is generally pretty happy. All of that said, Tom, you are right that there are issues, shall we say, because in 1876, he does basically the most unexpected and implausible thing you could possibly imagine.

27:13I mean, so unexpected, so implausible, that I think we should probably have a bit of music beforehand to brace ourselves for it. And what we're going to hear now is a piece he wrote in 1878, amid the great emotional crisis of, spoiler alert, Tchaikovsky's marriage. And that is what we will be coming to in a moment. But first, the third movement of his violin concerto, played by our soloist, the brilliant Lea Zu. Enjoy.

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41:06I can't tell you what a privilege it is to be actually on the stage listening to such virtuosity, such an honour. So thank you, Lea. Just amazing.

41:23so so Dominic Tchaikovsky's marriage I think we've established he's very much not the marrying kind of a guy so what's going on there I mean does he think it's his duty he's got to lie back and think of Russia what's going on Tchaikovsky felt the pressure of social expectation basically. I think he felt that he ought to get married, that it was the thing to do whether he wanted to or not. So already in 1868 he had proposed to a soprano called Desire Artaud, which I think is a sensational name for a soprano. And she says yes. Yes she did, but it very quickly, I think much to his relief, fizzled out and she married somebody else.

42:09But then in 1877 he started getting letters from a young woman called Antonina Miljakova. And she had very briefly been a student of his, a music student. Now Tchaikovsky had completely forgotten her, but she had certainly not forgotten him. She had developed this great crush on Tchaikovsky, and she basically starts sending him these letters. She's a super fan, I suppose. And he agrees to meet her, and at the second meeting, I think very recklessly, he asks her to marry him and immediately she says oh yes and Tchaikovsky thinks I have made a huge mistake and so the wedding when it happens is not 100 % the kind of wedding that a bride dreams of is it because they get married in Moscow in July 1877 and when the priest says to Tchaikovsky you may kiss the bride Tchaikovsky responds by bursting into tears yes Yes.

43:09Yeah, so the wedding night's not a bundle of laughs either. Because as soon as they reach the hotel, Tchaikovsky, in sort of desperation, takes a massive sedative and goes straight to sleep. And poor Antonina has no idea what's going on. But it's fair to say nothing much is going on. Because a few days later, Tchaikovsky writes to his brother and he says, look, I find my wife absolutely repulsive. And Tchaikovsky capable of great charm, but not on this occasion. No, not on this occasion. So he's very miserable. He's made a terrible mistake. He thinks about throwing himself into the river Moskva, but in the end, he basically flees to the countryside and leaves Antonina behind.

43:49And not just the countryside, right? I mean, he basically goes on a massive European holiday. So he goes to Paris, to Florence, to Rome, to Vienna, desperately trying to think of ways to avoid her. And then in the middle of all this, I mean, it should really have been his honeymoon. his great love interest Josef Kotek pitches up in Switzerland to see him which I imagine doesn't help with his kind of I should really get back with my wife kind of thoughts so you may remember from a few moments earlier that we said Kotek was a violinist so this is actually the moment that inspires Tchaikovsky to write the piece that we have just heard the violin concerto and when you listen to it you can feel there's this kind of incredible sense of excitement so I mean musicologists must hate this kind of talk but perhaps there's a sense there of the frenzy of passion that he's feeling for Kotech.

44:42But also it's a little bit mad, isn't it? And maybe that's the effects of his marriage. Well, here's a really mad thing. So the mad thing is that that piece that we've just heard played so brilliantly got one of the worst reviews in the history of classical music from the great Viennese critic of the day, Edouard Hanslick. Hanslick said that listening to that was like being in hell. He said, Tchaikovsky has proved for the first time the hideous notion that there can be music that stinks to the ear. I mean, that is mad. Well, I mean, Tom, as we often tell rival podcasters, rival history podcasters, you should never let the critics get you down.

45:21That's so true. So, Dominic, just two questions. And I'm guessing the answer to both these questions is no. Did they ever consummate their relationship? They did not. And did they ever get back together? Again, they did not. So he went back to Russia, he asked Antonina for a divorce, she said no. They separated, but they didn't divorce. He did give her financial help later in life, and they did sometimes meet, but he was always, I have to say, very cold and almost a little bit cruel when they met. And actually, by and large, when people talk about the great composers, they always overlook, or indeed are downright rude about, the wives.

45:57So perhaps we should spare a thought for Antonina. She had a really rough time through no fault of her own. She actually ended up going mad and ended up in a lunatic asylum. So it's a very sad story. And there's kind of sense that meeting Tchaikovsky isn't always great for your long-term mental stability here, isn't it? And I wonder, Dominic, whether it was worse for Antonina precisely because she had been such a fan and they separate just as Tchaikovsky is about to embark on the kind of, you know, the absolute pinnacle of his career, so the 1880s. He's become a massive national, actually an international celebrity, and people are comparing him to Mozart and saying that he can turn his hand to anything.

46:38Well, I mean, not anything, obviously not marriage, but symphonies, concertos, ballets, you name it, basically Tchaikovsky can do it, very Mozart. Yeah, and this is not just a question of Tchaikovsky's genius, it's also a question of the context. So in the 1880s, I mean, Russia obviously has some pretty, pretty major political issues which culminate in the Russian Revolution, but culturally it's a very rich and self-confident and sophisticated place. Now the Tsar at the time, Alexander III, is a massive reactionary and he is very keen on the idea that Russia is distinct from the rest of Europe, that it's sort of set apart by its Slavic history and identity.

47:17And so for Alexander and his court, the idea that Tchaikovsky is a distinctly Russian composer with a distinct Russian style, borrowing from traditional folk melodies and songs and whatnot, that becomes really, really important to them. Despite the fact that this is exactly the kind of thing that is going on in countries across Europe, so Sibelius is doing it, Vaughan Williams in New Course will do it, so what does the Tsar say to that? The Tsar doesn't give a damn about that, I think it's fair to say. So the Tsar, to the Tsar, he doesn't give a damn what Sibelius is doing, All that matters to him is that Tchaikovsky is a sort of authentic Russian hero.

47:54So in 1884, he invites Tchaikovsky to St. Petersburg to receive the Order of St. Vladimir. Extraordinary honour for a composer. He gives him a ring as a personal present, and he also gives him a lifetime pension, which is a sign of just how much Tchaikovsky is valued. So putting the marriage to one side, his life is pretty good. So he's got his pension, he's got his kind of honour, He's very popular. He's kind of famous. And he even has a kind of very, well, actually the kind of perfect patron, who's a woman called Nadezhda von Meck. And she's the perfect patron because they never meet, but she just chucks loads of money at him.

48:32Right, yes. And also he's a massive star in America, isn't he? Right. So he's actually very like us. He goes to New York in 1890. He conducts at Carnegie Hall. He loves it. the thing he loved most when he came back and he couldn't stop talking about it was the telephone in his hotel. He was amazed by this telephone and he kept ringing the reception just to kind of try out the phone. Very like Theo Young-Smith on our American tours ringing for room service. He was never off the telephone was he? And then when he gets back home from America he gets to work on one of the most joyous and celebrated things that he ever wrote and that is his ballet The Nutcracker and the good news Dominic ladies and gentlemen is that we are now going to hear two of its most glorious moments right now the sad news is that we are not going to dance to it but you can't you can't have everything

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52:52So that, of course, was the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Russian dance, both from the Nutcracker and Dominic. It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas, isn't it? Because, of course, the Nutcracker, the story of a wooden Nutcracker doll that comes to life at Christmas. Yes, and that was first performed in St. Petersburg, in December 1892. So at the time, Tchaikovsky was 52 years old. He was at the peak of his powers, the peak of his popularity. And he's probably got, what, 20 years ahead of him writing unimaginable masterpieces. But just a year later, his story takes a tragic twist. So on the 10th of October, 1893, Tchaikovsky arrives in St.

53:38Petersburg by train, and he's planning to stay with his younger brother, who we've already mentioned, Modest. And Dominic, we're going to be talking about the history of St. Petersburg in a couple of weeks on the podcast, because of course we're doing Peter the Great, and St. Petersburg is founded by Peter the Great on very marshy, very boggy land, a lot of mosquitoes, and so it is notoriously unhealthy, isn't it? Right. It's always been plagued by cholera outbreaks, one of which is raging in the autumn of 1893. and all the restaurants have been told by the authorities that they have to boil their water before giving it to the customers.

54:17But 10 days into his stay, the 20th of October, Tchaikovsky goes out with his mates on the Nevsky Prospect and they go into a restaurant and he asks for water. And the waiter says, we've just run out of all the boiled water. If you hold on a little while, we'll get you some more. Tchaikovsky says, I don't want to wait. I'm very thirsty. I'm sure it's fine. just bring me a glass of unboiled water. You can probably guess what's coming. The next day, he complains of feeling unwell. He says, don't call a doctor, I'm sure it'll be fine. Three days later, by the time they do call a doctor, it's obvious it's not fine.

54:53And so it is that at three in the morning, on the 25th of October, 1893, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died of kidney failure. Or did he? because Dominic you know I love a mad conspiracy theory and it's fair to say that even at the time there were people who were skeptical of this whole unboiled water story and they said that Tchaikovsky would never make such a stupid mistake and therefore there must be a more sinister explanation and actually you've said how Mozart was Tchaikovsky's great hero there are elements here, aren't there, of the rumours that start to spread around Mozart's death, the possibility that perhaps he'd been murdered.

55:37And aren't there historians who kind of dabble in these kind of waters about Tchaikovsky? There are indeed, yes, who dabble in these murky waters. So a very good example is an eminent British historian, biographer called David Brown, and he suggested that Tchaikovsky had taken poison, that he'd killed himself, under pressure from his old schoolmates. He said basically his schoolmates had convened this court of honour and they had handed down their verdict that Tchaikovsky must either take the decent way out or they would expose the secrets of his sex life. And what credibility do you give to this theory?

56:17You know my methods, Tom. I find this very unconvincing. You see, first of all, Tchaikovsky doesn't strike me as a man who is haunted by guilt or anxiety or fear in the autumn of 1893. Actually, he's on cloud nine. He's just finished his sixth symphony. He's in very good form. Actually, I think behind all this, people struggle with, I think, the idea that a superstar, an international celebrity of this kind, an artist, could be cut down by something so random and so meaningless and banal. And I think people also struggled at the time, especially with the idea that cholera, which was a disease that afflicted the kind of urban poor, the starving masses could have carried off such a great man.

57:00I think they found that very hard to reconcile. Now for me, I think probably he did have cholera. I think the boiled water story as bizarre as it is, is probably true. Anyway, what we do know is that his funeral was a massive deal. It was the first commonest funeral ever to be held at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg and it's a sign of his celebrity and his importance. that 60 ,000 people applied for tickets. So that's Tchaikovsky not just dead, but now buried. And Dominic, I wonder, can you give us your verdict on Tchaikovsky? Where does he stand in the history of music? So a lot of people would see him...

57:37Well, he's undoubtedly Russia's most beloved composer. I think there's a very good argument that he's Russia's greatest composer. There have always been critics who have dismissed him as a bit lightweight or a bit easy, as a bit too audience-friendly. I don't think that's a bad thing, by the way, by being audience friendly. I know you don't. The comparison with Mozart, I think, is a good one. I think nobody since Mozart could do so many different things so quickly and so skillfully. And more broadly, Tchaikovsky has come to represent the idea, the musical idea of a Russian soul, the idea of Russia itself, sort of torn between Europe and Asia, East and West, all of that stuff.

58:15And he would have loved that, wouldn't he? Because he was a massive patriot. His country meant so much to him. And what was the thing he was saying about, he said that I've never come across anyone who loved Mother Russia more than I did. Right, exactly. So basically, he is to Russia what you are to Britain. Oh, Tom. Love it. Thank you. That's very kind. That's kind. You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, to capture that, there is one work, of course, above all. And this is the work that really captures, I think, his Russian patriotism. And it was commissioned in 1880 for the opening of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

58:50And this cathedral had been commissioned years before, hadn't it? And it was designed to serve as a memorial to the sacrifices made by the Russian people in their defeat of the invasion by Napoleon, which had happened in 1812. Napoleon had occupied Moscow, but had been defeated by the Russian strategy and by the winter, and had been forced to retreat in terrible circumstances, had ended up kind of getting frostbite and eating frozen horses and all kinds of things. And you look gutted at this failure of French strategy, Dominic. Absolutely devastating. Well, history is, regular listeners to the rest of this issue will know, is littered with French catastrophes.

59:29And this is one of the most purely enjoyable. Anyway, Tchaikovsky, he agreed to write a short piece of music for the opening ceremony. And this piece captures the whole story of the 1812 campaign. So you get the kind of melodies of the Russian Orthodox Church. you get folk tunes, you get Tom the strutting bombast of the Marseillaise. Strutting bombast. You get bells, you get gunfire, you get celebrations and you even get cannons. So it's literally a banger, ladies and gentlemen. By far Tchaikovsky's most popular work and I think there is no better piece with which to close his story and this half.

1:00:12Right, well before we have the music, let me just remind you that we'll be back after the interval in the second half with the life of Richard Wagner. Now, can I just ask, are there any members here of the Rest is History Club? Well, that's very good to know. And as always, the good news for you club members is that you can hear that second half right away. You don't have to wait. Ad-free. But I'm afraid the rest of you will have to wait until after the interval. It's such a bargain, isn't it, Dominic? It's such a bargain. But for now, we leave you with Oliver Zeffman, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

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1:16:16Thanks so much for listening. We will be back on Thursday in 2026, our first episode of the year. And that will be with the second half of that show that we recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. And the focus of the show will be the most controversial of all classical composers, Richard Wagner. I hope you enjoy it. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.