TCHAIKOVSKY AND HIS WORLD

Tchaikovsky has long intrigued music-lovers as a figure who straddles many borders--between East and West, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, tradition and innovation, tenderness and bombast, masculine and feminine. In this book, through consideration of his music and biography, scholars from several disciplines explore the many sides of Tchaikovsky. The volume presents for the first time in English some of Tchaikovskys own writings about music, as well as three influential articles, previously available only in German, from the 1993 Tübingen conference commemorating the centennial of Tchaikovskys death.Tchaikovskys distinguished biographer, Alexander Poznansky, reveals new findings from his most recent archival explorations in Kiln, Tchaikovskys home. Poznansky makes accessible for the first time the full text of perviously censored letters, clarifying issues about the composers life that until now have remained mere conjecture. Leon Botstein examines the world of realist art that was so influential in Tchaikovskys day, while Janet Kennedy describes how interpretations of Tchaikovskys ballet Sleeping Beauty act as a barometer of the aesthetic and even political climate of several generations. Natalia Minibayeva elucidates the First Orchestral Suite as a workshop for Tchaikovskys composition of large-scale works, including symphony, opera, and ballet, while Susanne Dammann discusses the problematic Fourth Symphony as a work perfectly poised between East and West. Arkadii Klimovitsky considers Tchaikovskys role as a link between Russias Golden and Silver Ages. The extensive interaction between music and literature in this period forms the basis for Rosamund Bartletts essay on creative parallels between Tchaikovsky and Chekhov. Richard Wortman describes the political climate at the end of Tchaikovskys life, including Alexander IIIs mania for re-creating seventeenth-century Russian culture. Caryl Emerson, Kadja Grönke, and Leslie Kearney examine a number of