Peter Tchaikovsky

a.k.a. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Author Code: RPTX

Initially studying law, Tchaikovsky, who at an early age had learned to play the piano, eventually turned to music in his early twenties. He studied for a number of years in St Petersburg before accepting a job at the Moscow Conservatoire. Married in 1877, Tchaikovsky soon divorced and suffered a mental breakdown. He was exclusively homosexual and never remarried. He began composing in the early 1860's and his first symphony, Winter Daydreams was produced in 1866, but his most memorable work came in the following decades. His greatest opera, Eugene Onegin, was written in 1878-79. His most famous ballets, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, were written in 1875-76. His first piano concerto is from 1874-75. In all, he would produce six symphonies, the last of which, Pathetique, was finished shortly before his death, and numerous operas, ballets, choral works, and instrumentals. He died from cholera a few days after the Pathetique was first performed in St Petersburg.