Tchaikovsky's empire : a new life of Russia's greatest composer / Simon Morrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morrison, Simon, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 1840-1893.

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich.

Composers--Russia--Biography.

Composers.

Genre:

Biography.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 359 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2024]

Summary:

Tchaikovsky is famous for all the wrong reasons. Portrayed as a hopeless romantic, a suffering melancholic, or a morbid obsessive, the Tchaikovsky we think we know is a shadow of the fascinating reality. It is all too easy to forget that he composed an empire’s worth of music, and navigated the imperial Russian court to great advantage. In this iconoclastic biography, celebrated author Simon Morrison re-creates Tchaikovsky’s complex world. His life and art were framed by Russian national ambition, and his work was the emanation of an imperial subject: kaleidoscopic, capacious, cosmopolitan, decentred. Morrison reexamines the relationship between Tchaikovsky’s music, personal life, and politics; his support of Tsars Alexander II and III; and his engagement with the cultures of the imperial margins, in Ukraine, Poland, and the Caucasus. Tchaikovsky’s Empire unsettles everything we thought we knew—and gives us a vivid new appreciation of Russia’s most popular composer"-- Publisher's website.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300192100

030019210X

OCLC:

1429575654