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son married Tchaikovsky’s niece in 1884, the composer never met his patron in
person: for fourteen years, the baroness provided Tchaikovsky within an idealized
female friend to whom he could safely pour out his feelings. This contrasted with
the composer’s “real” life, an emotional roller coaster involving an ill-conceived
marriage to a former St. Petersburg Conservatory student (Antonina Milyukova),
suicide attempts, and Mme. Von Meck’s eventual severing of all support (she
ran out of money in 1890). He wrote, “Truly there would be reason to go mad
were it not for music.” The last four years of Tchaikosky’s life were both his most
turbulent and his most professionally successful.

Just as Swan Lake (1876), Sleeping Beauty (1889), and his eleven Russian operas
began to establish him as one of Russia’s leading composers, Tchaikovsky
became a sought-after guest conductor. In 1891, he made a very successful tour
of the United States, conducting his Coronation March, Suite No. 3, two choruses
from his Nine Church Pieces, and the Piano Concerto No. 1 during the opening
festivities for Carnegie Hall (April), visiting Niagara Falls, and conducting his own
works in Philadelphia and Baltimore (May). He remarked, “I have never managed
to rouse such enthusiasm in Russia. I was called for endlessly, with cries of encore
and waving of handkerchiefs—in short, it was evident that I am indeed loved
by the Americans.” He returned home for the premieres of The Nutcracker (1892)
and his Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique” (1893), then died suddenly at age fifty-four.
While not part of the nationalistic music group known as “The Five”, Tchaikovsky
wrote music which was both distinctly Russian (plangent, introspective, modally-
inflected melody and harmony) and unique. His unsettling, but beautiful, 5/4
waltz from the Symphony No. 6 contrasts highly with the dozens of simpler,
danceable waltzes in his ballets. The many moods of this last symphony illustrate
this passage from one of his last letters to Mme. Von Meck:

“You see, my dear friend, I am made up of contradictions, and I have reached
a very mature age without resting upon anything positive, without having
calmed my restless spirit either by religion or philosophy. Undoubtedly, I
should have gone mad but for music. Music is indeed the most beautiful
of all Heaven’s gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms,
enlightens, stills our souls. It is not the straw to which the drowning man
clings; but a true friend, refuge, and comforter, for whose sake life is worth
living.”

2022/23 Season Oh, the Places We’ll Go! PAGE 15
2022/23 Season Oh, the Places We’ll Go! PAGE 15