Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker-Part III

Tchaikovsky as a teenager

Today, we continue our discussion of Tchaikovsky with his mother's death and early school years. Not an easy time for young Peter.

"On June 25, 1854 Tchaikovsky suffered the shock of his mother's death from cholera. Tchaikovsky authority David Brown calls it 'the crucial event of [Tchaikovsky's] years at the School of Jurisprudence',and noted that 'it was certainly shattering.' Tchaikovsky bemoaned the loss of his mother for the rest of his life, and admitted that it had 'a huge influence on the way things turned out for me.' He was so affected that he was unable to inform Fanny Dürbach [his French governess] until two years after the fact. At the age of 40, approximately 26 years after his mother's death, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, 'Every moment of that appalling day is as vivid to me as though it were yesterday.' However, within a month of his mother's death he was making his first serious efforts at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky's father, who also became sick with cholera at this time but made a full recovery, immediately sent the boy back to school in hope that the classwork would occupy his mind. To make up for his sense of isolation and to compensate for the loss in his family, Tchaikovsky formed important friendships with fellow students, such as those with Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard, which lasted the rest of his life. He may have also been exposed to the allegedly widespread homosexual practices at the school. Whether these were formative experiences or practices toward which the composer would have gravitated normally, biographers agree that he may have discovered his sexual orientation at this time.

"Music was not considered a high priority at the School of Jurisprudence, but Tchaikovsky maintained a connection to music extracurricularly, by regularly attending the theater and the opera with other students. At this time, he was fond of works by Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and Mozart. He was known to sit at the school's harmonium [a type of reed organ] after choir practice and improvise on whatever themes had just been sung. 'We were amused,' Vladimir Gerard later remembered, 'but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory.' Piano manufacturer Franz Becker made occasional visits to the school as a token music teacher. This was the only formal music instruction Tchaikovsky received there. In 1855, Ilya Tchaikovsky funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger, a well-known piano teacher from Nuremberg. Ilya also questioned Kündinger about a musical career for his son. Kündinger replied that while he was impressed with Tchaikovsky's ability to improvise at the keyboard, nothing suggested a potential composer or even a fine performer. Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice."

Watch a performance of the March from The Nutcracker.