Observations of and about his youth

childhood

Fanny Durbach
(1822-95)

She was Tchaikovsky's tutor during his child- hood years. They were extremely close and wrote to each other throughout their lives. These are Modest's account of Fanny's recollections of the composer.

"His sensitivity knew no bounds and so one had to deal with him very carefully. Every little trifle could upset or wound him. He was a child of glass. As for reproofs and admonitions (with him there could be no question of punishments), what would have been water off a duck's back to other children affected him deeply, and if the degree of severity was increased only the slightest, would upset him alarmingly. Once in connection with some assignment that both brothers had done badly, I reproached them and said, among other things, that I pitied their father who worked to earn money for his children's education while they were so ungrateful that they set no store by this, and were careless in their work and duties. Nikolay listened to this and ran out as happily as ever. . . But Pierre [the composer] remained pensive all day and, going to bed that evening (when I myself had forgotten the reproof I had administered that morning), suddenly dissolved in tears, and began talking about his love for his father, and making excused for the ingratitude towards his father that was unjustly imputed to him. . ."
(Brown 6)

"After work or long periods of letting his imaginations loose at the piano he was always very nervy and on edge. Once the Tchaikovskys had guests, and the whole evening was spent in musical entertainment. Because it was a holiday the children were allowed to join the gown-ups. Pierre [Pyotr Ilyich, the composer] was initially very lively and happy, but towards the end of the evening became so tired that he went upstairs earlier than usual. When Fanny went to the nursery some time later he was not yet asleep but, his eyes glistening, was weeping agitatedly. When asked what was the matter with him, he replied:
® ® 'O, it's the music!'
® ® But there was not music to be heard at the moment.
® ® 'Get rid of it for me! It's here, here,' said the boy, weeping and
® ® pointing to his head. 'It won't give me any peace!"
(Brown 8)

Personal habits

Fyodor Maslov
(1840-1915)

He was the one of the composer's school friends and a colleague at the Minstry of Justice. Here, he accounts the composer's personal habits.

"In his daily life he was distinguished for his disorderliness and untidiness. He filched nearly all his father's library for his comrades - but when he himself used the books for others, he did not bother to return them. In 1869 in Moscow, at the home of the Conservatoire professor [i.e. Tchaikovsky himself] who [now] had nothing to link him with the judiciary, I found legal works 'overdue' even when he was still at School . . .
Pyotr Ilich never had his own textbooks and tried to borrow them from his comrades. But his own desk was also, as it were, an open access, and whoever wanted could rummage in it. . . .
In his later years at school Tchaikovsky kept a diary entitled Everything, where he poured out all the secrets of his soul, but was so naively trusting that he did not keep it under lock but in that same desk lying in the general pile of his own and others' books and excise books."
(Brown 11)

Musical traits

Herman Laroche
(1845-1904)

Musical Critic. He was the composer's lifelong friend, starting from their early years at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Laroche was "the most supportive -- and most penetrating -- critic of Tchaikovsky's music"(Brown 18). Here, he analyzes the composer as a pianist in his youth.

"He [Tchaikovsky] played [the piano] . . . in general very well, boldly with brilliance, [and] could pay pieces of greatest difficulty. To my taste at that time his playing was somewhat rough, lacking in warmth and depth of feeling - exactly the opposite of what the contemporary reader might have imagined it to be above all. The point is that Pyotr Ilich feared sentimentality like the plague and consequently dislike over-expressive piano playing, making fun of the expressive marking 'play with feeling' . . . The musical feeling within him was controlled by a certain chasteness, and out of fear of vulgarity he could go to the opposite extreme."
(Brown 19)

Valentina Serova
(1846-1924)

Minor composer: pupil and wife of Alexander Serov.

"While we were drinking tea Tchaikovsky went to the piano and absentmindedly ran his finger over the keys, seemingly transporting himself elsewhere, away from all that surrounded him. I don't know what prompted me to go over to him and draw him out of this state of self-oblivion; I only remember that I approached him boldly and, with the carefree self-assurance characteristic of a still very young, not fully matured being, asked him in a challenging tone:
® ® 'And what are your musical ideals, Pyotr Ilich?"
® ® He started, looked around, and without hurrying replied:
® ® "My -- ideals? But is it really absolutely essential to have ideals in music? I'd never thought of this.'
® ® He turned on me that clear glance of his which had the stamp of almost childlike naivety, and added firmly and precisely:
® ® 'I have no musical ideals!"
(Brown 25)

Back: Impressions
Credit: taken from David Brown's Tchaikovsky Remembered

1998-9 by Gretchen Lamb
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