Widely considered the most famous Russian composer in history, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, most popular work includes ‘The Nutcracker and ‘The Sleeping Beauty “.
Who Was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky?
His work was first performed to a large audience in 1865. His First symphony was well accepted also in 1868. The first public performance of a piece by composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky took place in 1865. His First Symphony was favorably appreciated in 1868. He made his name with the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor in 1874. After leaving the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, Tchaikovsky continued to write music prolifically for the remainder of his career. Most people are familiar with Tchaikovsky through his ballets, particularly Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. On November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, he passed away.
His Early Life
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer, was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia, on May 7, 1840. He was the second oldest of the six living children of his parents. Ilya Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky’s father, was a manager of a metal factory and a mine inspector.
He started taking piano lessons when he was five years old. His parents had hoped he would grow up to work in the civil service despite having a passion for music. He began to attend that imperial school of jurisprudence at the age of 10. Alexandra, his mother passed away due to cholera in 1854, when he was just 14 years. He took up a job as a bureau clerk post, according to his parent’s wish in 1859, with the ministry of justice – a post he worked in for close to four years during which his passion for music deepens the more.
At 21 years of age, Tchaikovsky chose to enroll in music instruction at the Russian Musical Society. He became one of the first composition students at the newly established St. Petersburg Conservatory a few months later after enrolling. Tchaikovsky not only studied at the conservatory but also tutored other pupils privately. He relocated to Moscow in 1863 and started working as a harmony professor at the Moscow Conservatory.
Tchaikovsky’s Compositions
Operas
His work was performed publicly for the first time in 1865, at a concert where Johann Strauss the younger was conducting Tchaikovsky’s characteristic dances. When Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony was presented in front of an audience in Moscow in 1868, it was highly received. His debut opera, The Voyevoda, was staged the next year, but with little fanfare.
Tchaikovsky abandoned The Voyevoda and used some of its elements to create Oprichnik, his subsequent opera, which received positive reviews when it was premiered at the Maryinsky in St. Petersburg in 1874. Tchaikovsky had received acclaim for his Second Symphony by this point. With his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Tchaikovsky managed to solidify his reputation as a gifted instrumental composer despite the unfavorable reviews his opera “Vakula the Smith” received in 1874.
From “Swan Lake” to “The Nutcracker” Ballets
Tchaikovsky received widespread acclaim after completing Symphony No. 3 in D Major in 1875. The composer began a tour of Europe at the end of that year. He finished both the fiction Francesca Da Rimini and the ballet Swan Lake in 1876. While the latter has become one of the most often performed ballets of all time, Tchaikovsky once again faced criticism at its premiere for being excessively complicated and “noisy.”